Author and popular historian George MacDonald Fraser passed away on Jan 2nd, 2008, at the age of 82. There is something that really strikes one when a favorite author passes on. I’ve been reading his books for years now, especially, of course, his Flashmans. I feverishly burned through the backlog that existed when I first found them. Since then, every once in a while, a new Flashman would come out. It was like a dear and too seldom seen old friend had come by to visit. Now that friend is gone.
Mr. Fraser’s Flashman series revolves around a vile murderer, bully, cheat, coward and sex maniac who inadvertently ended up engaged in just about every significant military adventure of the second half of the 19th century (the Boxer Rebellion in China, the Indian Mutiny, the Charge of the Light Brigade, the siege of Khartoum, the Mexican Revolution, the Battle of Little Big Horn, etc.), and somehow emerged throughout with great and highly unearned military honors and prestige. Eventually he is knighted Sir Harry Flashman.
The Flashman novels take the form of diaries written in his old age, in which he reveals the true stories behind his misdeeds. Harry is a true anti-hero, one of literature’s all time great creeps, save only for his honesty (as least in his ‘diaries’). These are compulsively good reads, and due to Fraser’s extensive knowledge, you will learn a great deal about the military actions of the Victorian period. These are fascinating reads, although not likely to please the politically correct, as Sir Harry’s racial attitudes are just exactly what you’d expect from a bullying Englishman of that time period. Most of all, these books are as funny as hell.
There are 12 novels in the series. I am bereft that there will not be another. The series starts with Flashman, and I highly recommend them all. Mr. Fraser also wrote some none Flashman novels, and also a book sure to delight readers of this site, The Hollywood History of the World, in which he scrutinizes Hollywood’s sins against History over the decades. So break out those library cards, or check out Amazon or Fetchbook.info for where the books may be procured. Good reading to you.
