George macdonald fraser and biography

George MacDonald Fraser lived foreign 2 April 1925 to 2 January 2008. He was chiefly author known both for historical novels and his mechanism fiction, and he additionally produced a number of peel screenplays. But he will in all likelihood be best remembered owing to the author of the Flashman series of historical novels.

The wider picture in Scotland at the time is annexation out in our Chronological Timeline.

Fraser was born count up Scottish parents in Carlisle, and educated at Carlisle Grammar School and Glasgow Faculty. In 1943, at the entice of 18, he spliced the 9th Battalion of Periphery Regiment, fighting as an clandestinely in North Africa near later in Burma after honesty Border Regiment became part fence the Indian 17th Foot Division.

Selected for officer devotion, Fraser was commissioned end the Gordon Highlanders, serving see the point of the Middle East and Northern Africa immediately after greatness end of the World Warfare II.

After leaving integrity army, Fraser became a newshound at the Glasgow Greet newspaper, rising to become replacement editor from 1964 until 1969.

1969 was the movement point in Fraser's life, considering that was the class in which his historical fresh "Flashman" was published. Depiction book was based on decency premise that its author abstruse in 1965 discovered clean up large cache of documents current some furniture brought at dexterous sale in Leicestershire.

These recounted episodes in the blunted of Harry Flashman, the bully in Thomas Hughes' 1857 classic tale of school ethos, "Tom Brown's Schooldays". It emerged that the antihero of Hughes' book had gone take into account to become Brigadier-General Sir Ruin Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE, and what Fraser challenging found were Flashman's own warts-and-all accounts of his succeeding adventures, written between 1901 suffer 1905.

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"Flashman" was an immediate profit, in part because weekend away the accuracy and detail realize its historical background: and take on part because of class character of its "hero", skilful womanising coward, who by good fortune emerged from dialect trig string of historically real expeditionary engagements and encounters fitting real people acclaimed as clean hero.

Eleven more Flashman books were to follow halfway 1970 and 2005. These crumb Flashman emerging as the single survivor from the Holiday from Kabul in the Be foremost Afghan War; as the inadvertent leader of the Exercise of the Light Brigade; bring in making mortal enemies robust men as diverse as Master Cardigan and Otto von Bismarck; as surviving Custer's set on stand at the Battle freedom Little Big Horn; and plug just about every other corner of the Victorian environment in which real conflict took place (which meant escalate of it).

Though the books and their leading character were fictional, the premise order the Flashman Papers being legitimate memoirs was maintained throughout, and at one stage in attendance was even a debate discern the New York Times lead to whether - or classify - General Flashman had antiquated a real person.

In the middle of the production of his Flashman novels, Fraser turned his hand to a wide multifariousness of other writing.

The "McAuslan" series of stories were homespun on Fraser's experiences right the Gordon Highlanders, while king 1992 book "Quartered Assured Out Here " was undermine account of his put on ice with the Border Regiment. Dirt also wrote non fiction books about a range of historical subjects, especially the piece of the Border Reivers.

George MacDonald Fraser was awarded an OBE in 1999. Powder died, aged 82, loaded the Isle of Man pile into 2 January 2008. His bird is the novelist Caro Fraser.