George MacDonald Fraser

1925–2008

George MacDonald Fraser was a British novelist, screenwriter and journalist best known for the Flashman Papers, a series of historical adventures featuring the cowardly, dishonest and unexpectedly successful soldier Harry Flashman. Born in Carlisle in 1925, Fraser served with the Border Regiment during the Burma campaign in the Second World War before pursuing a career in journalism. His military experiences later informed Quartered Safe Out Here and the semi-autobiographical McAuslan stories.

Beginning with Flashman in 1969, Fraser placed his fictional antihero within major nineteenth-century conflicts, combining extensive historical research with satire and fast-paced adventure. He also wrote novels including Mr American, The Pyrates and Black Ajax, as well as the history The Steel Bonnets. His screenwriting credits included The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, Royal Flash and the James Bond film Octopussy.

Periods and events

Austerity Britain Post-war Britain Crimean War Imperial Russia Indian Rebellion of 1857 Native American History Opium Wars Taiping Rebellion British Hong Kong Abolition Movement in Britain Abolitionism and American Slavery Early Victorian Britain Victorian Era Nineteenth-Century Europe

Series

Series by George MacDonald Fraser (1 series)

The Flashman Papers in Order

by George MacDonald Fraser 12 books 4.2

The Flashman Papers present the supposed memoirs of Sir Harry Paget Flashman, the bully expelled from Rugby School in Tom Brown’s School Days who becomes a decorated Victorian soldier despite being a coward, liar, opportunist and sexual predator. George MacDonald Fraser places this fictional witness inside documented nineteenth-century…