Flashman

Um, never mind.

In stores next tenday! Order nowe and receive thee newe single "Chasin' Mutton"!

haha flashman is farting so loudly at the charge of the light brigade that lord cardigan says "can you not contain youtself, you disgusting fellow?" ("contain yrself" is one of my favourite phrases)

i like the way GMF has footnotes where he says things like: "flashman's memory is surely at fault here: the duke of wellington's wife had been dead for three years..."

As sequels go, it was more entertaining than Tom Brown at Oxford and similarly filled with trivia about codes of conduct. I especially liked how he manipulates everyone else's concerns about self-honor to cheat his way through the duel with Bernier. A much more interesting account of a duel than that of Van Veen's in Ada.

I also enjoyed the deadpan humor of the "notes."

This copy has really lurid cover art that makes it look like a Harlequin Romance. As I was reading it on the subway last week, an older woman collapsed in the seat next to me and mentioned that she had accidentally taken the subway in the wrong direction. After I nodded sympathetically, she presumed enough familiarity to ask what I was reading, looked at the cover art and then said "It doesn't look like high literature." Rockist! At least I know which subway I'm taking.

I'm devouring the Flashman books at the moment, love em. Such a great (despicable) character, and lots of eye-opening lessons on the more obscure and weird corners of the Victorian era.

Apparently there is a film in pre-production starring Fassbender.

Flashman is pure caricature and very cartoony, but really well done at the same time. Macdonald Frazier makes the effort to get his historic details in good order and he knows how to operate the machinery of a potboiler, while also satirizing them.

My only criticism was he wrote too many Flashman books. But he was forced into it by their popularity, much as Conan Doyle was by Sherlock Holmes, although Flashman is not as great an invention as Holmes was.

I read Black Ajax over Xmas, just about enjoyed it but was stuck thinking that elements of racism that were in it might not have just been a reflection of the time - early 19th century as I'd initially dismissed them.
Not sure what George Macdonald Fraser's own politics were but have enjoyed previous books by him, have read 2 or 3 Flashman books and meant to read more.
Not seen th efilm in years but know the cast is pretty good and think it was enjoyuable. Did see it as a kid, like pre-teen at the cinema which has me wondering what the certificate was. Couldn't have really been viewed as a family film can it?

I adore these books. They tail away towards the end of the series, but the last one - in which Flashy gallops assorted Ethiopian princesses and escapes a madman - is a cracker.

I like his "McAuslan" series, about serving with a Scottish regiment in North Africa after the war. Light, but quite funny.

Not sure what George Macdonald Fraser's own politics were

Pretty old-school Tory I think.

His memoir of serving in Burma (Myanmar) during WWII is also worth reading. Can't recall the title atm.

"Quartered Safe out here"....yeah, a good read, but a lot of his politics do come through there, as described above, more or less.