Does anybody else read George Macdonald Fraser ( wrote the "Flashman" books)

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So yes, a copycat thread, but this was what I thought of when I saw the other one. I read three of these, and I still think they're among the funniest things I ever read.

Anyone a fan?

― Masked Gazza, Friday, 4 March 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

they're briliant (though when you realise that GMF really is a nasty old sexist reactionary fascist bigot they lose a little of their lustre).

read them all tho.

there's also a very average film of Royal Flash starring Malcolm McDowell.

― Pete W (peterw), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

Yes yes yes, and the new Flashman comes out in a month!

― elspeth, Friday, 4 March 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)

really! that is good news. last one was three short stories wasn't it?

― Pete W (peterw), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:05 (twenty years ago)

I read the first book and don't remember much. Ever since I read something from him that indicated he had no idea how anyone could claim Apocalypse Now was based on Heart of Darkness, I have looked at him askance.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

Yes...They're fantastic, F at the Charge and F in the Great Game being my favourites. I accept that GMF is not a bleeding heart liberal, but I think Pete W goes a bit far. There's a number of website dedicated to Flashman ( http://members.aol.com/flashmanhp/flashman.html or http://www.pangloss.ca/flashman/ or http://www.harryflashman.org.uk/ ). Worth a visit for more information and if I remember correctly lots of background information in the Macropedia found on the aol site.

― Andrew Jackson, Friday, 4 March 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

i see what GMF means re. 'apocaypse now' totally.

― NRQ, Friday, 4 March 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

maybe. i just remember reading bits of his autobiography and being rather taken aback at his, erm, bracingly old-fashioned attitude to race and gender and the SUPERIORITY of Britishness.

his other set of books about a scottish army unit kicking around north africa after the war are also absolutely superb.

he also uses some of the best footnotes ever.

― Pete W (peterw), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

I sure as fuck don't, NRQ! It's hardly a one to one comparison but what more evidence did he need?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

I think you should read Flashman's Lady, Ned.

― Pete W (peterw), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:26 (twenty years ago)

i guess the spirit of 'apocalypse now' is just not very conrad-ish at all. it's its own thing, and i like it, and can hardly remember 'heart of darkness', but i think conrad and coppola have different world-views. fuck knows what coppola's w/v actually is, btw. ('war is bad'?)

― NRQ, Friday, 4 March 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

eight years pass...

there's also a very average film of Royal Flash starring Malcolm McDowell

This is almost fair, but it's a little better than that if you like gags being staged more cinematically by Richard Lester than Mel Brooks did it, and young McDowell's luscious rear end. (newly out in limited-ed Bluray)

when you realise that GMF really is a nasty old sexist reactionary fascist bigot they lose a little of their lustre

This is funny cuz one wd assume from the Lester film that the material spoofs such attitudes. Books don't seem to have even much of a cult following in the US; I know GMF as a screenwriter, for Lester's Musketeers films... and Octopussy!

― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 19 December 2013 17:02 (eleven years ago)

This is funny cuz one wd assume from the Lester film that the material spoofs such attitudes.

The Flashman books definitely spoof them, but in a rather affectionate way. You're certainly supposed to like Harry, for all his appalling behaviour, and you generally do.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Friday, 20 December 2013 03:30 (eleven years ago)

Rumours of new films starring Fassbender appear to be no more than rumours, sadly.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Friday, 20 December 2013 03:33 (eleven years ago)

I've read several of these. The vile, cowardly anti-hero-who-does-good-despite-himself element gets stale rather quickly, but strange to say the historic elements are quite well researched and hold up to close scrutiny. If you would like to read something of his that lacks the heavy wink-wink nudge-nudge of flashman, he has a memoir of his WWII service in Burma (presnt day: Myanmar) titled Quartered Safe Out Here. Decent storytelling. Not classic.

― Aimless, Friday, 20 December 2013 03:52 (eleven years ago)

the historic elements are quite well researched and hold up to close scrutiny.

He's really good at digging up interesting and obscure little pockets of Victorian history as well.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Friday, 20 December 2013 13:41 (eleven years ago)

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