The key for me was the clarity of writing, the historical accuracy and the way in which human weakness is portrayed in such a familiar terms. I've been a fan of the flashman books for years, and Fraser's works works are some of the few written stories where I've found myself laughing out load.

I count myself very lucky to have a signed copy of one of the Flashman books as a professional historian specialising in one of the darker episodes of the Victorian Empire myself - the invasion of Zululand - I have often thought that GMF's view of history as dominated by charlatans, fools, cowards and egomaniacs offers more insights than a shelf-load of self-serving contemporary memoirs. So it's true, egad! No more tales of galloping dusky beauties, thrashing minions and frantic poltroonery. Read a selection of your comments on this story: He added: 'Way back in the '60s he was seen as the journalist of his generation in Scotland.'

He was a superbly gifted writer, he wrote with such clarity, and was a good leader writer and editor.' Murray Ritchie, 66, was taught journalism by MacDonald Fraser on the Dumfries Standard in the 1960s. 'He was a smashing bloke, amiable, friendly and first-class company,' he said. The former news editor on the Herald, 83-year-old Bob Brown, described MacDonald Fraser as 'a highly competent journalist'. MacDonald Fraser based his tales on the idea that Flashman's 'memoirs' had been unearthed in an old trunk in a Leicestershire auction room.ĭespite being a vain, cowardly rogue, as well as a racist and a sexist, the character managed to play a pivotal role in many of the 19th Century's most significant events, always emerging covered in glory.Īs well as Octopussy in 1983, MacDonald Fraser wrote other screenplays including The Prince and The Pauper and The Three Musketeers.įellow author Kingsley Amis called him 'a marvellous reporter and a first-rate historical novelist'. The inspiration for Sir Harry Flashman came from the 19th century novel, Tom Brown's Schooldays, where the character features as the cowardly bully who torments the hero, Tom. He was still working there when the first Flashman book was published in 1969.

MacDonald Fraser served as a soldier in Burma and India during World War II and later rose to be deputy editor of the Glasgow Herald newspaper.

Flashman books in order