The Flashman

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. Expelled from Rugby for drunkenness, and none too welcome at home after seducing his father's mistress, the young Flashman embarks on a military career with Lord Cardigan's Hussars. En route to Afghanistan, our hero hones his skills as a soldier, duellist, imposter, coward and amorist (mastering all 97 ways of Hindu love-making during a brief sojourn in Calcutta), before being pressed into reluctant service as a secret agent. His Afghan adventures culminate in a starring role in that great historic disaster, the Retreat from Kabul.

ISBN 0006511252   Pages 304 ISBN13 9780006511250 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 210 Publisher HarperCollins Publishers   Published in London Imprint HarperCollins Publishers Ltd   Series title The Flashman Papers Format Paperback   Height (mm) 197 Publication date 01 Feb 1999   Width (mm) 130 DEWEY 823.914   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC21

'The Flashman Papers do what all great sagas do - winning new admirers along the way but never, ever betraying old ones. It is an immense achievement.' Sunday Telegraph 'Not so much a march as a full-blooded charge, fortified by the usual lashings of salty sex, meticulously choreographed battle scenes and hilariously spineless acts of self preservation by Flashman.' Sunday Times 'Not only are the Flashman books extremely funny, but they give meticulous care to authenticity. You can, between the guffaws, learn from them.' Washington Post 'A first-rate historical novelist' Kingsley Amis

this is a great read! It is leisurely, but yet with such an intelligent humor, it is baroque. I read it during my deployment to Afghanistan, and it set everything in perspective! It could be a boys read, it could be and old academics read. Not usually one for light litterature, i found this 'story' catching and was not able to put the book down. The descriptions of the adventures of the scrupolous Flashman are incredible, yet almost believable. It is a tour de force of the famed 1842 British defeat in Afghanistan, and i must say it gives (almost) real food for thought given our current engagement!<br>Can be recommended as a light summer read, for a long weekend in front of the fireplae, or as a funny gift to either boy or intellectual friends with humour! - Niels Vistisen

Funny, historical, believable and fascinationg - Nicola Ryall



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