Showing results by author "George MacDonald Fraser" in All Categories

A game of cards leads Flashman from the jungle death-house of Dahomey to the slave state of Mississippi as he dabbles in the slave trade in Volume III of the Flashman Papers. When Flashman was inveigled into a game of pontoon with Disraeli and Lord George Bentinck, he was making an unconscious choice about his own future – would it lie in the House of Commons or the West African slave trade? Was there, for that matter, very much difference?

The first unpublished novel from the historical fiction legend George Macdonald Fraser, featuring the unscrupulous and brilliantly entertaining pirate Calico Jack Rackham. New Providence, 1720s. When infamous pirate Captain 'Calico' Jack Rackham returns from the high seas to ask Governor Woodes Rogers for a royal pardon, the Governor sees his chance to put his own devious plans into action.

Private McAuslan, J.—the Dirtiest Soldier in the World (alias the Tartan Caliban)—demonstrates his unfitness for military service in this first volume of stories of life in a Scottish regiment. Unkempt, ungainly and unwashed, civilian listeners may regard him with shocked disbelief. But generations of ex-servicemen have hailed him with delight as a familiar friend—because every old soldier can remember a McAuslan!

This is a beautiful, moving tale from the best-selling author of the Flashman Papers. To the young Lady Margaret Dacre, raised in the rich security of Queen Elizabeth's court, the Scottish border was a land of blood and brutal violence, where raid and murder were commonplace, and her broad inheritance lay at the mercy of the outlaw riders and feuding tribes of England's last frontier.

In China, in 1860, a lot of people mistakenly put their trust in Flashman: the English vicar’s daughter with her cargo of opium; Lord Elgin in search of an intelligence chief; the Emperor’s ravishing concubine, seeking a champion in her struggles for power; and Szu-Zhan, the female bandit colossus, as practised in the arts of love as in the arts of war. They were not to know that behind his Victoria Cross, Harry Flashman was a base coward and a charlatan. They took him at face value. And he took them, for all he could, while China seethed through the bloodiest civil war in history.

In Volume II of the Flashman Papers, Flashman tangles with femme fatale Lola Montez and the dastardly Otto Von Bismarck in a battle of wits which will decide the destiny of a continent. In this volume of The Flashman Papers, Flashman, the arch-cad and toady, matches his wits, his talents for deceit and malice, and above all his speed in evasion against the most brilliant European statesman and against the most beauiful and unscrupulous adventuress of the era.

A wolf howls through the forests of Transylvania, the murky graveyards of H.P. Lovecraft, the mythic marshes of Count Stenbock and the ghostly vaults of English cathedrals in these timeless stories read by award-winning actors from The Story Circle company.

I hele den engelske hær findes der ingen, der er bedre til at fremstå så heltemodig og nobel som kujonen og svindleren Harry Flashman. I 1860 deltager bangebuksen stikmod sin vilje i urolighederne i Kina, hvor han fungerer som spion og sendebud mellem den kinesiske og den fransk-engelske hær. Alligevel finder han tid til at få andre i fedtefadet, mens han slipper uskadt væk, og får fanget op til flere af de skørter, han er så ferm til at jage.

Verdens største slyngel, skørtejægeren, kujonen, spillefuglen, krigshelten, levemanden - kort sagt: Harry Flashman - er igen i aktion. Efter en bordelbatalje møder han den skønne Lola Montez, og det lykkes ham at krænke hendes kavaler, fyrst Otto von Bismarck, grundigt. Og vor helt sætter sit umiskendelige præg på historiens gang, da han involveres i intrigerne omkring de slesvig-holstenske hertugdømmer.

Det er hævet over enhver tvivl, at Harry Flashman var en sjuft, en skamløs skørtejæger, en samvittighedsløs slyngel og en kujon af værste skuffe. Det er en beklagelig kendsgerning, at han ikke desto mindre blev modtaget af Hendes Majestæt dronning Victoria og hertugen af Wellington og fejret som imperiets helt. I sine memoirer fra felttoget i Afghanistan afslører han selv, hvordan det egentlig gik til.

Harry Flashman er en kujon af rang, men ved skæbnens ironi føres han lige lukt ind i den ene farlige situation efter den anden, da han meget mod sin vilje må deltage i Krimkrigen. Og det er endda kun den spæde start på de rystende og udmarvende hændelser, skæbnen har tiltænkt ham hovedrollen i... Den britiske forfatter George MacDonald Fraser (1925-2008) er bedst kendt for sin serie af historiske romaner om den kujonagtige levemand og antihelt Harry Flashman, der gør tvivlsom og ufortjent karriere i den britiske hær i 1800-tallet.