George III et al., Arthur Aspinall, ed., The Later Correspondence of George III ( Cambridge University Press, 1962), p. 293 Flashman's stories are dominated by his numerous amorous encounters. Several of them are with prominent historical personages. These women are sometimes window dressing, sometimes pivotal characters in the unpredictable twists and turns of the books. Historical women Flashman bedded included: Flashman and the Tiger". British Library Catalogue. London: British Library . Retrieved 3 February 2013. Reid, Melanie (20 November 1994). "Flash...Bang...Wallop...He's... Mr Boring; George Macdonald Fraser the author of the Flashman novel". Sunday Mail. Glasgow. p.24. Jean Laborde - A Frenchman and former slave in Madagascar who helps Flashman on his arrival in that country

Sandy Mitchell's Warhammer 40,000 character Commissar Ciaphas Cain is partially inspired by Flashman. [17] He is survived by his wife Kathleen Hetherington whom he married in 1949, their two sons and one daughter. It is hard now, with Flashman recognised as an international comic classic, to believe that Fraser had difficulty getting the book published. Flashman was turned down a dozen times before Herbert Jenkins, the small independent house best known for publishing PG Wodehouse, brought it out.

A busy man of tremendous energy, Fraser claimed to have written 20 or 30 film scripts. Most of them were never made, but even so, he said, the money was very good. The scripts that did reach the screen were The Three Musketeers (1974), The Four Musketeers (1975), Royal Flash (1975), The Prince and the Pauper (1977), the James Bond film Octopussy (1983), Red Sonia (1985), Casanova (1987) and The Return of the Musketeers (1989). As he admits in the Papers, Flashman is a coward, who will flee from danger if there is any way to do so, and has on some occasions collapsed in funk. He has one great advantage in concealing this weakness: when he is frightened, his face turns red, rather than white, so that observers think he is excited, enraged, or exuberant—as a hero ought to be.

a b c "Obituary of George MacDonald Fraser Author who brought new life to Flashman, the cad to end all cads". The Daily Telegraph. London. 4 January 2008. p.27. Fraser, George MacDonald (1995). Flashman and the Angel of the Lord. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-649023-4. Flashman in the Great Game". British Library Catalogue. London: British Library . Retrieved 3 February 2013. Fraser, George MacDonald (2000). Flashman and the Tiger. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-651367-4. I was slightly annoyed by the "editing" of blasphemies in the "Flashman Papers". I had to pause each time to work out that "b-----d" was "bastard" and not "bugger" or "bloody", and it took me a while to realize that "C----t" was "Christ", because I was trying to think of an obscenity that fitted.While in Hong Kong, Flashman is reluctantly persuaded by an English vicar's wife to escort a shipment of opium into Canton; en route he discovers that instead of opium he is carrying guns to the Taiping rebels. He is subsequently put onto the British embassy intelligence staff in Shanghai. He then travels to the mouth of the Peiho to join Lord Elgin's staff for his march to Peking. During the course of the march he is captured by Qing imperial troops and becomes the prisoner and lover of Yehonala, the imperial concubine. He is finally freed when the British army arrives at Peking; he then witnesses the destruction of the imperial Summer Palace. Flashman's expulsion from Rugby School for drunkenness leads him to join the British Army. He joins the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons commanded by Lord Cardigan. After an affair with a fellow-officer's lover, he fights a duel, but cheats. He is posted to Scotland because of the affair, and is billeted with the Morrison family; he takes advantage of one of the daughters, Elspeth. After a forced marriage, Flashman is required to resign his position in the Hussars and instead is gazetted into a position with the East India Company.

TW: Historically accurate slurs, Kidnapping, Cruelty, Torture, Racism, Sexism, Gore, War, Death, Injury, Attempted Murder, Adultery The great mass of manuscript known as the Flashman papers was discovered during a sale of household furniture... The papers, which had apparently lain untouched for fifty years, in a tea chest... were carefully wrapped in oilskin covers.Judy Parsons, his father's mistress ( Flashman). After a single bedding to satisfy joint lust, she and Flashman achieve a state of mutual dislike. As irreverent and picaresque as Tom Jones and always more dramatic... Flashman is a one-man demolition squad!"-- Chicago Today

Mike Dorey (10 February 1973). "Cadman the Fighting Coward". mikedorey.co.uk . Retrieved 10 April 2022. Of course it has the usual George Macdonald Fraser problem of caring nothing for political correctness, and with Flashy travelling to both Singapore and Madagascar there is quite the spectrum of racist language. However, it is to me entirely justified by the historical context and Flashman's character, and never feels as if it is used with more venom or flippancy than necessary. Hitchens, Christopher (March 2006). "Scoundrel Time; Part James Bond, part Bertie Wooster, Flashman has whored, drunk, and weaseled his way through 12 adventures set in British imperial times". Vanity Fair. Condé Nast Publications (547). With Flashy, you know what you’re getting. He is the man who introduced me to the concept that you can be both a coward and a bully at the same time (the concept simply hadn’t occurred to me before; i thought they were antithetical.) and never does this come to the fore more than in Flashman’s lady.This incident sets the tone for Flashman's life. Over the following 60 years or so, he is involved in many of the major military conflicts of the 19th century—always in spite of his best efforts to evade his duty. He is often selected for especially dangerous jobs because of his heroic reputation. He meets many famous people, and survives some of the worst military disasters of the period (the First Anglo-Afghan War, the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Siege of Cawnpore, the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the Battle of Isandlwana), always coming out with more heroic laurels. The date of his last adventure seems to have been around 1900, being involved in the Boxer Rebellion alongside US Marines. [6] He dies in 1915. Flashman is 6feet 2inches (1.88m) tall, weighs 13 stone (180lb; 83kg) (12½ stone in the first book, fourteen stone in the last), has broad shoulders and is attractive to women. [15] [c] He was forced into marriage in the first book, after he "caddishly deflowered" Elspeth Morrison, [3] the daughter of a wealthy Scottish textile manufacturer with whom he had been billeted. [15] Despite being married—and the fact he deeply loves his wife—Flashman is "a compulsive womaniser" [10] who has bedded 480 women by the tenth book in the series, which was set in 1859. [20] Elspeth is also probably unfaithful to him on several occasions. [15] Flashman notes that he has three "prime talents, for horses, languages, and fornication"; [21] he was also described by the master-at-arms of the 11th Hussars as a strong swordsman [22] and was skilled with a lance, particularly at tent pegging. [23] When it is necessary for him to control his fear, he will perform bravely, although is more adept at saving his own skin at the expense of others. [10] He was also once reminded of a woman that Elspeth claimed he flirted with named Kitty Stevens, though Flashman was unable to remember her. If you like the series, this definitely is one you have to read, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it unless you're taking the Flashman Paper in its entirety. I could recommend this just so more people can see what the kingdom of Madagascar was really like, or what the piracy situation of Singapore was like, which were fascinating, but otherwise, I'd recommend the other two Flashman I've read first over this one. On consideration, perhaps this is better than Flashman 1 in my mind (it's been a while since I read it) but that does give the context to the full Flashman story more than this does.