George MacDonald Fraser
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George MacDonald Fraser OBE (born 1926 in Carlisle, England) is an Anglo-Scots writer. He writes both historical novels and non-fiction books. [1]
He worked as a journalist and served in the British army in World War II. He also wrote several screenplays. He was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1999. He is most famous for the Flashman series of historical novels, purportedly written by Harry Flashman, a fictional coward, bully and sexual predator originally created by Thomas Hughes in his book Tom Brown's School Days. The books are presented as "packets" of memoirs written by the nonagenarian Flashman, looking back on his days as a hero of the British army during the 19th century. The series begins with Flashman, and is notable for the accuracy of the historical settings.
[edit] Works
The Flashman series is the major work of George Fraser. As of August, 2006 there are the following books in the series.
- Flashman (1969).
- Royal Flash (1970).
- Flash for Freedom! (1971).
- Flashman at the Charge (1973).
- Flashman in the Great Game (1975).
- Flashman's Lady (1977).
- Flashman and the Redskins (1982).
- Flashman and the Dragon (1986).
- Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1991).
- Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (1996).
- Flashman and the Tiger (1999).
- Flashman on the March (2005).
Other works by the author:
- Quartered Safe Out Here, a memoir of the author's experiences as an infantryman in the Border Regiment during the Burma Campaign of World War II
- The "Dand MacNeill" or "McAuslan" stories, an indirect continuation of Quartered Safe Out Here. Essentially a humorous fictionalized memoir of the author's experiences as an officer in the Gordon Highlanders in North Africa and Scotland soon after World War II, it is composed of three short story compilations (some of the stories were originally bylined "Dand MacNeill)":
- The General Danced at Dawn (1970)
- McAuslan in the Rough (1974)
- The Sheikh and the Dustbin (1986)
- The Steel Bonnets, a history of the Border Reivers of the Anglo-Scottish Border.
- The Hollywood History of the World: From One Million Years B.C. to Apocalypse Now. The book discusses how Hollywood deals with history. An overview and critique of several more or less historical films made by American and British companies. It concludes that the standard of historical analysis in most movies is far better than one might imagine. The text is illustrated by many comparative images of figures from history and the actors who portrayed them in film. In many cases the similarities are highly striking.
- The Pyrates, a tongue-in-cheek novel incorporating all the possible buccaneer film plots into one.
- Black Ajax, a novel about Tom Molineaux, a 19th century black prizefighter in England. (As in Mr American, this novel is also connected to the Flashman series - in this case Sir Harry Flashman's father plays a minor role.)
- Mr American (1970), a novel about a mysterious American in England, including his dealings with General Flashman.
- Candlemass Road, a short novel about the Border Reivers of the 16th century.
- Light's on at Signpost (2002), a memoir of the author's days writing in Hollywood, interspersed with some rather bitter rants against political correctness and new Labour.
He wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for:
- The Three Musketeers (1973)
- The Four Musketeers (1974)
- Royal Flash (1975, adapted from his novel)
- Crossed Swords (US) or The Prince and the Pauper (UK) (1978)
- Octopussy (1983)
- Red Sonja (1985)
- The Return of the Musketeers (1989)
