George MacDonald Fraser: The Light's On at Signpost (2002)

Best known to me as the author of the fantastic Flashman novels, George MacDonald Fraser turns out from this volume of memoirs to have also been involved in the scriptwriting for a number of well known films of the 1970s, and to have had a lot of strongly held opinions,  both of which he was able to write about in an interesting if sometimes irritating manner.

The wildly diverse material in this book is helpfully divided into appropriately titled alternating sections, either Shooting Script or Angry Old Man, with Interludes - comment difficult to fit into either category - interspersed every so often. This means that the reader with little tolerance for political ranting but an interest in the cinema can read self-admittedly star struck reminiscences of films from The Three Musketeers to Superman and Octopussy; and the Daily Mail-reading UK Independence Party supporter can confirm their prejudices without bothering with the cultural memories. (Even if you agree with everything he says, however, I think that the tone of the latter sections would become wearing after a while.) Reading them both, though, has a jarring effect due to the contrast in tone between vitriolic rage at the state of Britain at the start of the twenty-first century, and affectionate enjoyment of the opportunities to work with a long list of stars. The Light's On at Signpost presents a schizophrenic reading experience, and is hard to enjoy.

Fraser lived at this time on the Isle of Man, and the book's title is a Manx expression. Derived from the practice of turning on a light at the top of a signpost when a rider in the TT motorcycle road race is nearing the end of the final lap, it is used to indicate how near death Fraser felt (though  in the end he lived for another six years, producing two more novels and another volume of non-fiction). The book basically contains the things that he wanted to say before he would no longer be able to, and it has for this reason something of the feel of a series of blog posts. At the end, Fraser describes the book as a "mixed bag", and that is a pretty exact description of what it is. It was interesting to read once, but I certainly won't be picking it up again now that I have.

I'd rate the film sections at 7/10, and the angry old man sections at 3/10, which averages to a rating of 5/10 for The Light's On at Signpost as a whole.


Edition: HarperCollins, 2003 (Available to purchase from Amazon here)
Review number: 1453

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman at the Charge (1973)

Edition: Granada, 1989
Review number: 412

The fourth Flashman novel tells of his involvement in the Crimean War, with the Charge of the Light Brigade as its centrepiece. Great play is made on the contrast between Tennyson's heroic poem and Flashman on the back cover ("Was there a man dismay'd? Yes, one - Flashman"). It is one of the most fun of the series, though it does have a darker side in the stupidity of the commanders at Balaclava and the Russian brutality towards their serfs.

George MacDonald Fraser: Mr American (1980)

Edition: Pan
Review number: 360

In what was not quite a break from his Flashman series, Fraser wrote this novel about an American, Mark Franklin, who struck it rich and travelled to England, to the village his family had emigrated from many years previously. In 1909, despite being both American and nouveau riche, Franklin is able to move in the highest circles of English society, helped by amusing Edward VII at a chance meeting.

As in the Flashman books, Fraser includes a lot of historical detail in his narrative, including tales of the Wild Bunch, the Curragh mutiny, the music hall, the behaviour of suffragettes at the Royal Academy exhibition. And Flashman, at ninety still chasing pretty girls, makes several appearances.

The main reason that Mr American is not as good as the Flashman series is because of the blandness of the main character. I suspect that the realisation of this is the motivation for bringing Flashman into the story, to spice it up a bit. The Flashman novels contain almost all of Fraser's best work (I have an affection for Pyrates as well) and should probably be stuck to except by real fans.

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman and the Dragon (1985)

Edition: Fontana, 1985
Review number: 344

The eighth Flashman novel follows on from the sixth, and deals with the complex situation in China in 1860. In the middle of a civil war which still amounts to one of the most bloodthirsty campaigns in military history (the Taiping Rebellion - only the Second World War had more casualties), the British undertook a major military expedition to escort Lord Elgin to Beijing (then known as Pekin) in safety, there to force the Chinese Emperor to ratify the treaty which ended the Opium Wars. The damage done to Manchu superiority by this expedition, involving thousands of British and French soldiers and leading to much Chinese Imperial loss of face, ranks as one of the most important events in human history, for it sowed the seeds of the eventual downfall of the empire.

The Flashman series is written around the premise that he must be part of every important military action of the mid-nineteenth century and meet every important person. It is inconceivable, therefore, for him not to turn up at this expedition. The way Fraser gets him involved this time is that he accepts a job that he expects will be a doddle, escorting a cargo of opium into China. (His skill with languages means that he can deal with the Chinese authorities.) But he discovers that his cargo is actually far more dangerous - guns being run to supply the Taiping.

Since the previous instalment of the Flashman papers, as Fraser calls them, he seems a rather mellower character. As time goes on, he gets more comfortable to read about, less likely to do something particularly unpleasant. Most of the unpleasantness is concentrated in the barbaric (to European eyes) disregard for death and suffering - and in fact positive joy in causing them - which characterised the Chinese military (both Imperial and Taiping) at this time.

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman and the Redskins (1982)

Edition: MacMillan, 1983
Review number: 328

This is the seventh Flashman book, though the events it describes follow on directly from the third, Flash for Freedom! In fact, Fraser slightly alters the ending of the earlier book so that Flashman doesn't actually get so far as on board a boat returning to England after his adventures with the Underground Railroad. Instead, he is catapulted into a journey across the West with the 'Forty-Niners, on their way to the California goldrush.

The second half of the novel is about Flashman's return twenty six years later, on what starts as a tourist trip for the benefit of his wife Elspeth and ends with his terrified participation in Custer's defeat at the Little Bighorn.

The book generally could be described as typical Flashman. The first part, however, is probably my least favourite of all the Flashman stories; he seems more unpleasant and less charming than usual. As usual, the background has been carefully researched by Fraser, and he skilfully manoeuvres Flashy in and out of desperate scrapes.

George MacDonald Fraser: Flash for Freedom! (1971)

Edition: Fontana
Review number: 312

By the third volume of 'the Flashman papers', George MacDonald Fraser has settled down into the style and mannerisms that mark the rest of the series to date. Indeed, from this point on there is an air of interchangeability about the novels.

The chronology of Royal Flash and Flash for Freedom leaves a gap of six or seven years (between parts one and two of Royal Flash), which will be filled in by later volumes in the series. The events of Flash for Freedom immediately follow the second part, and fall in 1848-9.

Flashman becomes involved in the slave trade, forced by his father-in-law to take a passage on a slave ship that he owns. As usual, he stumbles from one scrape to another, driven by his absolute cowardice. Although not an abolitionist - he considers them hypocrites, condoning the maltreatment of children in British mills and mines while pretending a concern for Africans who they have never seen - Flashman is surprised and horrified by the conditions on board the slaver. He is of course too cowardly to do anything about it, but he does give Fraser an opportunity to recount some of the more unpleasant stories of the trade at this period, based on his (as usual) meticulous research.

Being called to the deathbed of another crew member, Flashman discovers that Comber is in fact a naval officer, a spy on the slavers. (The Navy has been trying, since the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, to stamp out the British-owned vessels involved in slave trading.) When the ship (named the Balliol College as a gesture against the Oxford college which had thrown out the captain after a scandal) is captured by an American warship in the Caribbean, Flashman escapes the fate of the others by pretending to be Comber and to have important information about the influential backers of the trade. (In the 1840s, the US slavery laws were rather complicated, as the division over the issue which eventually led to the Civil War became apparent. Though slavery was legal, to bring in new slaves from overseas was not. Thus the crew of the Balliol College had to stand trial for doing so, even though they had already unloaded their slaves - even empty, to sail a ship equipped as a slaver was a crime.)

From this point, Flashman gets involved with the underground railroad, the network of abolitionists helping slaves to escape to Canada and freedom. All the while, the only thing on his mind is to find a way to avoid danger and get back to England in one piece.

George MacDonald Fraser: Royal Flash (1970)

Edition: Pan, 1975
Review number: 301

The second of Fraser's Flashman series, Royal Flash is a spoof on Anthony Hope's classic The Prisoner of Zenda. It keeps fairly faithfully to the plot of Hope's novel, with the central part falling to the cowardly Flashman rather than the gallant Rudolf Rassendyll.

The major change made by Fraser is the motivation for the escapade. Flashman has no liking for adventure, and it requires both blackmail and force to get him to imitate Prince Carl Gustav. The plot is laid by Bismarck, and is an attempt to destabilise the border region between German states and Denmark, one of the more volatile parts of Europe in the mid-nineteenth century. (The border provinces of Schleswig and Holstein were claimed by both German patriots and the Danish state; the 'Schleswig-Holstein question' was made complicated by the fact that Germany was at the time fragmented into a large number of independent states.) Carl Gustav, a Danish prince, is set to marry Duchess Irma of Strackenz, a fictional, tiny state joining Schleswig and Holstein on the German-Danish border. Bismarck, realising Flashman's uncanny resemblance to Carl Gustav, intends to substitute him for the prince, and then reveal his identity, framing him as an agent of British Prime Minister Palmerston, engaged on some underhanded business. The purpose of this plot is to get both the Danes and Germans in Strackenz up in arms, provoking a general war in the region.

Of course, Flashman goes through the whole adventure quaking with terror. What will happen if someone finds out he isn't Carl Gustav? What will Bismarck do to keep him quiet even if he succeeds? The beginning of a trend which continues throughout the series can be seen in Royal Flash: the bullying unsympathetic side to Flashman begins to be suppressed, the comic element is emphasised. (I like the joke after Flashy, in his guise as the prince, sleeps with a chambermaid, and says to himself that if a child is born of the liaison, and grows up thinking himself closely related to royalty, he would truly be "an ignorant bastard".)

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman (1969)

Edition: Pan
Review number: 281

It is odd to look back at Fraser's first Flashman novel, to see the way in which Pan promoted it in the early seventies. Though having considerable intellectual background - based around a famous novel, backed up with meticulous historical research - the novel is advertised by comparing it to the sleazy soft-core porn of the Confessions series, still the object of furtive playground bartering when I was at school but now virtually forgotten. This is obviously a ploy to maximise sales of the book in a way that emphasising its literary and historical qualities would hardly have done. It is not entirely misleading, either, for there is considerable sexual activity in Flashman, but Fraser's writing is considerably better than the comparison suggests.

Harry Flashman is the bully from Tom Brown's School Days, continuing his career after the expulsion from Rugby School which forms part of that novel. Fraser has him becoming the most cowardly officer in the British Army. Sent out to India after disgracing himself by being trapped into marriage with a merchant's daughter, he manages to get involved in the First Afghan War, a display of incredible military incompetence on the part of the British Army.

In this first book, the edges are still a little raw, and Flashman is perhaps a rather more unpleasant person than he became. In the end, he became essential to the success of Fraser's writing; his periodic attempts to do something rather different (Mr American, the McAuslan stories, Pyrates) never having taken off in quite the same way.