Another Good One Gone

Kim du Toit
January 4, 2008
7:53 AM CDT

So… there’ll be no more Flashman books then?

Bugger.

George MacDonald Fraser has passed away, at age 82. Here’s his obit, and here’s a lovely article from someone who knew and loved him.

If you have never read a Flashman book, you should. (Start first by reading Tom Brown’s Schooldays, to get an introduction to Flashy. Then read the first book, the eponymously-entitled Flashman. Then Royal Flash, and so on, in chronological order.)

While Flashy is a fictional character, the Flashman novels are meticulously-researched historical fiction—you ca actually learn a great deal about Victorian history, and definitely about Victorian culture and mores, from the series.

My favorite Flashman exchange:

Flashman’s CO: “Where did you go to school?”
Flashman: “Rugby.”
Flashman’s CO: “So did I!”
Flashman (nervously): “Actually, sir, I was expelled.”
Flashman’s CO: “Were you, by God? So was I! What were you expelled for?”
Flashman: “Drunkenness, mainly.”
Flashman’s CO: “Drunkenness? Drunkenness? My God, they’ll be expellin’ for rape, next!”

For non-Flashman books, try The General Danced At Dawn and McAuslan In The Rough, in that order.

GMF served in General Slim’s army in Burma during WWII, so he was no weenie. My favorite GMF quote: ”How many officers of field rank, now serving, have used a bayonet?”

Not enough, in my opinion, and his.

I’ve read almost all GMF’s novels and stories, and every single one is a joy and delight. No greater praise can be given a writer.

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“Quartered Safe Out Here” is his wonderful memoir of service in Burma. Some of the best descriptions of infantry fighting ever; personal reflections on Bill Slim and the privilege of serving under “one of the great captains”; and some excellent stories about fighting alongside theGurkhas, for those of us who share his opinion that the Gurkha is “the most fatal fighting man on Earth”. (High praise from someone who went on to serve with the Jocks; of course in Burma he served with Borderers, and his talent for reproducing authentic dialect speech is at full expression in this book.)

Sadly missed. RIP.

hongkonger | 1/4/2008 08:14 AM CDT | #109026


Same-same, Hongkonger. Quartered Safe is priceless, and should be a must-read for any who would lead men into battle. Damn.

Flashman, my hero!!

vmijpp | 1/4/2008 08:24 AM CDT | #109027


It’s a sad day, all right. Fraser also wrote the screenplay for the wonderful 1973(?) version of The Three Musketeers, one of my favorite films.

I am behind on my Flashman reading. I’ve read Flashman and the Redskins and Flashman and the Mountain of Light, and I saw the film version of Royal Flash with Malcolm McDowell and Oliver Reed.

MiddleAgedKen | 1/4/2008 08:35 AM CDT | #109029


All of the McAuslan stories are now together in a biggish paperback entitled , I think, McAuslan.

I’m surprised you didn’t mention “Mr. American”, which gives some homage to American gun skills and attitudes.

Fred Z | 1/4/2008 09:17 AM CDT | #109041


C.S. Forester with a huge sense of humour, he will be missed!!!

Exquisite at the fine details, he could make the totally outrageous seem utterly plausable.

Frigate | 1/4/2008 09:41 AM CDT | #109045


Flashman is politically, deliciously incorrect.

A book which is probably out of print, but worth nabbing if you see it, is The Steel Bonnets, a history of the time from the early 1400s to the early 1600s, when the border lands between Scotland and England were reduced to anarchy. Fraser tells of the Border Reivers, who lived by theft and cattle rustling after wars between England and Scotland made settled life hard.

Some of the rougher characters in the Wild West were descendants of the Borderers. When the Crown decided to get serious about suppressing the area, it was often a choice between the rope and emigration. As Fraser remarks, you can tell by a glance at their features the ancestry of your Presidents Johnson and Nixon, both Border names.

Rereading the book recently, it struck me that if it had been compulsory reading at the Pentagon and State before the invasion of Afghanistan, with the North West Frontier close to hand, the handling of that country might have been different. For a start, the Iraq invasion would have been put off until the Stan was pacified, even suppressed. The Afghan and western Pakistani tribes are not so different from the old Borderers, and it should have been realised right from the start that Afghan was going to be no easy job.

Jeff Wood | 1/4/2008 09:42 AM CDT | #109046


Kim .... Saw his obit in this morning’s Telegraph.
I confess I’d heard the name but wasn’t familiar with his books.
My wife however was and told me a bit about them and how much she enjoyed them.
Somehow tho seeing your tribute and the time you took to list books and so on, well I guess I’m gonna have to educate myself and drift over to AMZN and buy the first one you suggest and then go from there.

Judging by the snippets you posted here, I’d guess that I am in for a pleasant read.  Thanks.

jdpeiper | 1/4/2008 10:09 AM CDT | #109050


I had heard that he had another Flashman on the ways...if we’re really, really lucky, there’s enough that someone can finish it and put it into print.

Technomad | 1/4/2008 10:58 AM CDT | #109061


Kim, I can only agree with your other commenters. Both Mr Amercian & Quartered Safe Out Here are well worth a read

Mr Free Market | 1/4/2008 12:13 PM CDT | #109066


I know I don’t post often, I usually am a lurker. but I have to speak up and say: “why do I have to wait for all these good authors to die before those of you that already now his work speak up and inform the rest of us?”

Mors | 1/4/2008 01:02 PM CDT | #109076


I was just talking to someone about him last night, wondering about his age.
I wrote him a letter several years ago, and true to form, he wrote back. He answered every piece of mail sent him, typing his letters on a typewriter.

I had written him to thank him for the McAuslan tales and QSOH. Both of those were so extremely effective in showing the moods, the emotions and the comraderie that makes up military life. I am still in awe of the Regimental Sergeant Major in the McAuslan series.

And now I am off to have a sweet sip of an 18 year old malt and a toast to a writer that will be sorely missed.

Hunter
Ketchikan, AK

Hunter | 1/4/2008 01:45 PM CDT | #109083


Dang.  All the good ones are going - CS Forester, Patrick O’Brian, now GM Fraser.  His “Steel Bonnets” is outstanding, and so is “Quartered Safe Out Here”.  And while we are at it, here’s to Rudyard Kipling - “You may talk of gin and beer, when you’re quartered safe out here, and speak of penny fights and Aldershot it.  But when it comes to slaughter, you will do your work on water, and lick the bloomin’ boots of him thats got it.” And has anyone read “Harp Song of the Dane Women”?  “The Screw Guns”?  “Chant Pagan” (”...me that has followed my trade, in the place where the lightnings are made.")?  I very much doubt if any of these authors are ever mentioned in ANY high school or college “Literature” class.

bigranvil | 1/4/2008 02:22 PM CDT | #109089


PS - Note to Mors:  Try John Ringo, David Drake and Eric Flint.  Mostly Sci-fi, but excellent military sci-fi.  If you aren’t into sci-fi, try John Ringo’s “Ghost”.  For non-fiction, try Stephen Hunter’s “American Gunfight” on the attempted asassination of Harry Truman.  Or his “Dirty White Boys”, or “Point of Impact”, or “Pale Horse Coming”.  Or any of Web Griffith’s series on the Marines ("The Corps").  All of the above know the difference between an M-1 Garand and an M-1 Carbine, some of them are military veterans, and none of them will have their characters attempting to releaase the safety on a revolver.

bigranvil | 1/4/2008 02:35 PM CDT | #109091


I couldn’t get into Flashman, but The General Danced at Dawn and the MacAuslan stories are wonderful!!

Emily_Nelson | 1/4/2008 05:48 PM CDT | #109106


Ringo’s Ghost is about a five volume series now, and there’s at least one more to come.

As for Kipling, here’s a little addition to your bookmarks.

SDN | 1/4/2008 06:11 PM CDT | #109109


Don’t have the book handy right now, but his description of the Regiment when told they were going to be viewed by the Royal Family on a holiday at changing of the guard was, in part, “The Sergeant-Major was ecstatic at the chance to display his perfection for the Royal Family.”

And I think Barnes & Noble reprinted The Steel Bonnets a couple of years ago, don’t know if still carry it or not.

Firehand | 1/4/2008 07:52 PM CDT | #109113


I have loved Kipling’s poetry for decades.  Rereading old favorites, I was struck by the appropriateness of “Cleared” to our current times. 

“We are not ruled by murderers, but only - by their friends!”

Papapete | 1/4/2008 09:51 PM CDT | #109117


When I was in Swaziland, I read what I could get my hands on.
Nothing can prepare one for their introduction to Flashman and Jane Austin in the same day.

Alear | 1/4/2008 11:54 PM CDT | #109120


Well crap, that’s a down note on which to start the new year.

+1 to all the above, but lest we forget:

Pyrates!

MoK's Mate | 1/5/2008 12:23 PM CDT | #109148


John Ringo, got it, I read the rest on your list. thanks!
I read a ton, as for flint, some good stuff but drives me to distraction with left wing bias sometimes. also his edits of Keith laumer are hackjobs sometimes.

Mors | 1/5/2008 03:02 PM CDT | #109152

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