Flashman, Flash for Freedom!, Flashman in the Great Game

For some reason this is the last of the Flashman series that I read, but the first published. As with all the others, very enjoyable read - reading about the icy retreat from Kabul while enjoying a warm spring sun in a park only adds to the fun.We see Flashman getting kicked out of school for drunkenness, join the army (that is, his father, "the guv'nor" buys him a commission in a suitably posh regiment), he rigs a duel and meets & marries his wife Elspeth, daughter of a rich steel mill owner, and gets discharged from his fancy regiment because its commanding officer finds this match unacceptable - no way one of his dashing young officers can marry a tradesman's daughter. The result is that Flashman has to transfer to India just in time to join the invasion of Afghanistan. The rest is history.Having finished my last Flashman, it is time to look back on this series. It is amazing how such a long-running series (1969 to 2005!) could be so consistently good. Perhaps the early 1970s books were the best - Royal Flash, Flashman's Lady, The Great Game, on the Charge. But I would never have wanted to miss Flashman & the Dragon nor The Mountain of Light of the 1980s and 1990s - and in fact, one could argue that the 2005 Flashman on the March was the most original of all, in terms of subject. In terms of spectacular battles, I liked the Great Game and The Mountain of Light best. The most original ones apart from 'on the March', I think, were Flashman's Lady (Queen Ranavolana of Madagascar and fighting pirates in the Borneo jungle....) and Royal Flash. The latter leads me to the topic of 'what else would you have liked, had MacDonald Fraser been able to write a few more'. I would have liked to see Flashman in action in 1860s Mexico, perhaps in combination with some adventures in Paraguay during the War of the Triple Alliance.....I bet he would have gotten along extremely well with Elisa Lynch. An additional European one would have been great as well - Flashman in the Risorgimento perhaps. Or in the Ottoman Empire, or with the French Foreign Legion, or in an Anglo-Burmese War? Ah, if only....

I first read this book in the Seventies and loved it so much I read all of the subsequent adventures of the former bully of Rugby School. A cracking tale and an insight into the great days of empire.And there is the problem. Flashman is what he is; a misogynistic lying coward packed with all of the prejudices of those days. Modern readers will find the treatment of women, the use of the "N" word, the treatment of the locals (Afghanis in this instance) and so much more very difficult to accept I feel now. This is a shame because, of course, none of this is actually condoned, it's just how it was. If you can overcome your shock/horror (and I was disconcerted as I had forgotten all of this from my Seventies reading) then it's quite simply a well-paced, humorous and entertaining novel.

I like military history and historical novels and having read George MacDonald Fraser's excellent own wartime memoirs, I thought I'd give Flashman a chance. I couldn't finish the book. It's boring, not funny at all and even for my non-woke, anti PC attitudes was distasteful in its attitudes, particularly to women. I know it's meant to be a p- take of British attitudes of the time, but it lacks the cutting sarcasm of a Blackadder or the silly schoolboy humour of a Carry On film and just comes across as crass.

How anyone could believe this to be a real memoir is beyond me, but some people did. For me, Flashman is pure entertainment. In the protagonist, Flashman, we have the worst kind of rogue, generally doing bad while apparently doing good, and all to further his own goals. We've seen something like him before, in Guy de Maupassant's 1885 novel,  Bel-Ami (Oxford World's Classics) , but Fraser gives him an edginess that takes Bel Ami's sauce and cheek further into something almost lascivious.Flashman's self-centred outlook leads him into trouble on the battlefield and in the boudoir, as he uses and abused his position and the people around him. It's fun, a real page-turner, a story so well-written and racy that it is something of a guilty pleasure, which I suppose is how Flashman sees much of his life. Bel-Ami (Oxford World's Classics)

OK, this was a bit of a departure for me but having seen a few people on the tube reading these books I looked it up on Amazon and noted all the 5 star reviews and decided to see what all the fuss was about.I wasnt disappointed although the first 20 or 30 pages are a little slow and I initially didnt warm to the central character.But as soon as Flashman arrives in Kabul things really get going and I was gripped by the authentic feeling historical settings.It seems a lot of Flashmans activities are based around real historical events and people which works brilliantly.Parts of the book really surprised me and are actually quite harrowing accounts of murder, rape, torture and obviously a brutal war.Thier are also laugh out load moments which I would read out to my largely disinterested and ignorant Mrs.Genuinely didnt want this to end, fortunately lots more books in the series and I will be sure to read them all.Its crying out to be made into a feature film.Great stuff. Read it and tell your friends.