George MacDonald Fraser Books In Order

Flashman

For George MacDonald Fraser the bully Flashman was easily the most interesting character in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, and imaginative speculation as to what might have happened to him after his expulsion from Rugby School for drunkenness ended in 12 volumes of memoirs in which Sir Harry Paget Flashman self confessed scoundrel, liar, cheat, thief, coward ‘and, oh yes, a toady’ romps his way through decades of nineteenth century history in a swashbuckling and often hilarious series of military and amorous adventures. In ‘Flashman‘ the youthful hero, armed with a commission in the 11th Dragoons, is shipped to India, woos and wins the beautiful Elspeth, and reluctantly takes part in the first Anglo Afghan War, honing a remarkable talent for self preservation. ‘Flash for Freedom!’ finds him crewing on an African slave ship, hiding in a New Orleans who*rehouse and fortuitously running into rising young American politician Abraham Lincoln…

Royal Flash

In Volume II of the Flashman Papers, Flashman tangles with femme fatale Lola Montez and the dastardly Otto Von Bismarck in a battle of wits which will decide the destiny of a continent. Did Flashman’s adventures in the Duchy of Strackenz provide the inspiration for The Prisoner of Zenda? The similarities are certainly there as Flash Harry becomes embroiled in a desperate succession of escapes, disguises, amours and when unavoidable hand to hand combats in an epic adventure that takes him from the gaming halls of London to the dungeons and throne rooms of Europe. And for once Flashman’s talents for deceit and treachery are matched by those of Otto von Bismarck and the beautiful but deadly Lola Montez.

Flash for Freedom!

A game of cards leads Flashman from the jungle death house of Dahomey to the slave state of Mississippi as he dabbles in the slave trade in Volume II of the Flashman Papers When Flashman was inveigled into a game of pontoon with Disraeli and Lord George Bentinck, he was making an unconscious choice about his own future would it lie in the House of Commons or the West African slave trade? Was there, for that matter, very much difference? Once again Flashman’s charm, cowardice, treachery, lechery and fleetness of foot see the lovable rogue triumph by the skin of his chattering teeth.

Flashman at the Charge

George MacDonald Fraser’s famous Flashman series appearing for the first time in B format with an exciting new series style, ready to please his legions of old fans and attract armies of new ones. The illustrious Flashy gets up to his old tricks in another installment of The Flashman Papers. ‘Forward the Light Brigade’ Was there a man dismayed? Indeed there was. As the British cavalry prepared to launch themselves against the Russian guns at Balaclava, Harry Flashman was not so much dismayed as terrified. But the Crimea was only the beginning: beyond lay snowbound wastes of the Great Russian slave empire, torture and death from relentless enemies, headlong escapes, savage tribal hordes to the right of him, passionate and beautiful females to the left of him, and finally that unknown but desperate war on the roof of the world, when India was the mighty prize and there was nothing to stop the armed might of Imperial Russia but the wavering sabre and terrified ingenuity of old Flashy himself.

Flashman in the Great Game

George MacDonald Fraser’s famous Flashman series appearing for the first time in B format with an exciting new series style, ready to please his legions of old fans and attract armies of new ones. The Flashman Papers 1856 58, Volume Five What caused the Indian Mutiny? The greased cartridge, religious fanaticism, political blundering, yes but one hitherto unsuspected factor is now revealed in the furtive figure which fled across the Indian scene in 1857 with such frantic haste: Flashman. For Flashman, plumbing new depths of anxious knavery in his role as secret agent extraordinary, saw far more of the Great Mutiny than he wanted to. How he survived his adventures and inevitable flights from Thugs and Tsarist agents, Eastern beauties and Cabinet ministers, and kept his skin intact, is a mystery as remarkable as The Flashman Papers themselves. This chapter sees him passing through his most harrowing ordeal to his supreme triumph, with Courage, Duty and Honour toiling dispiritedly in his wake.

Flashman’s Lady

A game of cricket lands Flashman in thrall to a mad barbarian queen in Madagascar in Volume VI of the Flashman Papers. Flashman accepts an invitation from his old enemy, Tom Brown of Rugby, to join in a friendly cricket match, little suspecting that he is letting himself in for the most desperate game of his scandalous career. What follows is a deadly struggle that sees him scampering from the hallowed wicket of Lord’s to the jungle lairs of Borneo pirates, from a Newgate hanging to the torture pits of Madagascar, and from Chinatown’s vice dens to slavery in the palace of ‘the female Caligula’ herself, Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar. Had he known what lay ahead, Flashman would never have taken up cricket seriously.

Flashman and the Redskins

The seventh volume of the ‘Flashman Papers’ records the arch cad’s adventures in America during Gold Rush of 1849 and the Battle of Bighorn in 1876, and his acquaintance with famous Indian chiefs, American soldiers, frontiersmen and statesmen.

Flashman and the Dragon

Unfortunately in China in 1860 a lot of people were depending on Flashman: the English vicar’s daughter with her cargo of opium; Lord Elgin; the Emperor s ravishing concubine; and Szu Zhan, the female bandit colossus, as practised in the arts of love as in the art of war. They were not to know that behind his Victoria Cross, Flashman was a base coward and charlatan. They took him at face value, and he took them for all he could, while China seethed through the bloodiest civil war in history, and the British and French armies hacked their way to the heart of the Forbidden City.

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord

The tenth installment in The Flashman Papers finds Captain Harry Flashman of Her Majesty’s Secret Service in the antebellum South, where the irrepressible, globe trotting Victorian becomes the target of blackmailing beauties. NYT. PW.

Flashman and the Tiger

The inimitable and appallingly appealing Flashy is back, in a long awaited new installment of The Flashman Papers. When the memoirs of Sir Harry Flashman, the notorious Victorian soldier and scoundrel, first came to light thirty years ago, it was finally revealed what had become of the infamous bully who had darkened Tom Brown’s school days. Now, three new episodes in the career of this eminently disreputable adventurer place us at the center of pivotal historical events the attempted assassination of Emperor Franz Josef in the 1880s, the Prince of Wales’s involvement in the Tranby Croft gambling scandal, and the military disaster at Rorke’s Drift in South Africa as the aging but agile Flashy is pitted against one of the greatest villains of his day. Thrown into contact with assorted grand royalty and even grander tarts, he must test his wits against political heavyweights, including Bismarck, as he becomes eyewitness to the uncensored truth about two of the greatest heroes of his time. Superb entertainment all verve, dash, meticulous historical detail, and wildly infectious enthusiasm.

Flashman on the March

It’s 1868 and Sir Harry Flashman, V.C., arch cad, amorist, cold headed soldier, and reluctant hero, is back!Fleeing a chain of vengeful pursuers that includes Mexican bandits, the French Foreign Legion, and the relatives of an infatuated Austrian beauty, Flashy is desperate for somewhere to take cover. So desperate, in fact, that he embarks on a perilous secret intelligence gathering mission to help free a group of Britons being held captive by a tyrannical Abyssinian king. That mission rapidly turns into one of the most famous expeditions in British military history, and along the way, of course, are nightmare castles, brigands, massacres, rebellions, orgies, and the loveliest and most lethal women in Africa including a voluptuous African queen with a weakness for stalwart adventurers whom she nonetheless occasionally throws to her pet lions who will test the limits of the great bounder s talents for knavery, amorous intrigue, and survival. Flashman on the March the twelfth book in George MacDonald Fraser s ever beloved, always scandalous Flashman Papers series is Flashman and Fraser at their best.

McAuslan in the Rough

McAuslan in the Rough, the second volume of George MacDonald Fraser’s stories featuring ‘Old Private Piltdown’ as the court martial defence called him, includes such episodes as the desert mystery of Fort Yarhuna, the Great Regimental Quiz, the search for a deserter in a native town threatened by epidemic, McAuslan in love, and his finest and funniest hour as a caddy to that rugged Caledonian eminence, the Regimental Sergeant Major, in a golf game whose importance makes the Open Championship look like a seaside putting competition. As his chronicler reminds us: ‘McAuslan is always with us. He was probably at Cannae and Pharsalia, and hasn’t washed since. And you can bet that he’ll be there, more or less at attention, with his rusty rifle and his buttons undone, when the ranks fall in for Armageddon.’

The Sheik and the Dustbin

These stories continue the career of Private McAuslan, described by his platoon commander as ‘the biggest walking disaster to hit the British Army since Ancient Pistol’, as he goes across North Africa and Scotland. George MacDonald Fraser is the author of the ‘Flashman’ novels.

McAuslan Entire

Stories of North Africa in World War II by the author of the Flashman novels. New Introduction by the author.

The Complete McAuslan

George MacDonald Fraser’s hilarious stories of the most disastrous soldier in the British Army are collected together for the first time in one volume. Private McAuslan, J., the Dirtiest Soldier in the World alias the Tartan Caliban, or the Highland Division’s answer to the Pekin Man first demonstrated his unfitness for service in The General Danced at Dawn. He continued his disorderly advance, losing, soiling or destroying his equipment, through the pages of McAuslan in the Rough. The final volume, The Sheikh and the Dustbin, pursues the career of the great incompetent as he shambles across North African and Scotland, swinging his right arm in time with his right leg and tripping over his untied laces. His admirers know him as court martial defendant, ghost catcher, star crossed lover and golf caddie extraordinary. Whether map reading his erratic way through the Sahara by night or confronting Arab rioters, McAuslan’s talent for catastrophe is guaranteed. Now, the inimitable McAuslan stories are collected together in one glorious volume.

The Pyrates

On the far side of history, where only wild writers and film producers dare to venture out yonder, in the old days and on the seas of high adventure, there were pyrates. They were a desperate crew.

The Candlemass Road

‘An afternoon’s reading that’ll stick in the memory for long afterwards. Hooray for George MacDonald Fraser!’-The Spectator

George MacDonald Fraser wrote The Candlemass Road after completing his research and writing The Steel Bonnets, his nonfiction account of the Anglo-Scottish border Reivers. Young Lady Margaret Dacre was brought up in the genteel fashion at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. When her father is murdered, she inherits his lands in the English West March and is plunged into a world where violence and raiding are commonplace. Fraser’s characters are, as always, richly developed through vivid descriptions and witty dialogues. His novel is true to the spirit of the Anglo-Scottish frontier feud.

Black Ajax

Bringing historical fact spiritedly to life, Fraser tells the rollicking tale of how ‘the Black Ajax‘ became as famous a figure in England as Napoleon and just as much a threat to its establishment before he passed into boxing legend and created a precedent for modern black prizefighters.

The Reavers

After twelve gloriously scandalous Flashman novels, the incomparable George MacDonald Fraser gives us a totally hilarious tale of derring do from a different era.

It’s the turn of the seventeenth century sort of, we re in the wild Borders of Scotland, and a casket of jewels, an accidental murder, an estate at risk and a plot to overthrow the king are the order of the day. The irresistible and feisty Lady Godiva Dacre and her chocolate box pretty companion Mistress Kylie Delishe find themselves stranded on a desolate road as highway robbers threaten their lives and possessions. Seemingly out of nowhere, the dashing Bonny Gilderoy think Johnny Depp on a horse single handedly defeats the villains, but not before stealing Lady Godiva s treasured jewels along with her heart.

After making it safely to their destination, Godiva and Kylie find themselves thrown back together with that charming scoundrel Gilderoy. A mysterious man named Archie Noble comes to their aid and also makes a play for Godiva s affections. Despite preposterous alliances and uproarious complications of the heart, they must rely on one another as secret identities are revealed and a perilous coup endangers the Scottish throne. It is through equally daring feats of courage and outlandish costumes that our heroes wade through salacious nightlife, confront wizards and witches and endure terrifying and ridiculous odds to preserve national pride and resolve the love triangles that threaten national security.

The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers

‘If Jesus Christ were amongst them, they would deceive him,’ it was said of the plunders, raiders, and outlaws who terrorized the Anglo Scottish Border for over 300 years. Theirs is an almost forgotten chapter of British history, preserved largely in folktales and ballads. It is the story of the notorious raiding families Armstrongs, Elliots, Grahams, Johnstones, Maxwells, Scotts, Kerrs, Nixons, and others of the outlaw bands and broken men, and the fierce battles of English and Scottish armies across the Marches. The Steel Bonnets tells their true story in its historical context how the reivers ran their raids and operated their system of blackmail and terrorism, and how the March Wardens, enforcing the unique Border law, fought the great lawless community. A superb work of scholarship and a spellbinding narrative. George MacDonald Fraser is the celebrated author of the Flashman novels, The Candlemass Road, The Pyrates, and the Private McAuslan stories.

The Hollywood History of the World

In THE PYRATES, the author of the celebrated Flashman novels pays tongue in cheek homage to the swashbuckling books and movies that have always stirred his imagination. In these rollicking pages you’ll find tall ships and desert islands; impossibly gallant adventurers and glamorous hero*ines; devilishly sinister cads and ghastly dungeons; improbably acrobatic duels and hair’s breadth escapes; and more plot twists than you can shake a rapier at. A deliriously entertaining combination of Errol Flynn action adventure and Naked Gun pastiche.

Quartered Safe Out Here

‘A moving and penetrating contribution to the literature of the Burma campaign.’ Max Hastings, Daily TelegraphGeorge MacDonald Fraser beloved for his series of Flashman historical novels offers an action packed memoir of his experiences in Burma during World War II. Fraser was only 19 when he arrived there in the war’s final year, and he offers a first hand glimpse at the camaraderie, danger, and satisfactions of service. A substantial Epilogue, occasioned by the 50th anniversary of VJ Day in 1995, adds poignancy to a volume that eminent military historian John Keegan described as ‘one of the great personal memoirs of the Second World War.’

The Lighta s On At Signpost

From the author of the ever popular Flashman novels, a collection of film world reminiscences and trenchant thoughts on Cool Britannia, New Labour and other abominations. In between writing Flashman novels, George MacDonald Fraser spent thirty years as an ‘incurably star struck’ screenwriter, working with the likes of Steve McQueen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cubby Broccoli, Burt Lancaster, Federico Fellini and Oliver Reed. Now he shares his recollections of those encounters, providing a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes. Far from starry eyed where Tony Blair & Co are concerned, he looks back also to the Britain of his youth and castigates those responsible for its decline to ‘a Third World country ! misruled by a typical Third World government, corrupt, incompetent and undemocratic’. Controversial, witty and revealing or ‘curmudgeonly’, ‘reactionary’, ‘undiluted spleen’, according to the critics The Light’s on at Signpost has struck a chord with a great section of the public. Perhaps, as one reader suggests, it should be ‘hidden beneath the floorboards, before the Politically Correct Thought Police come hammering at the door, demanding to confiscate any copies’.