George MacDonald Fraser Biography

A British writer who wrote the Flashman novels over four decades. The series of novels feature the fighting, drinking, and womanizing of Flashman during the nineteenth century when the British Empire was still great. The second volume in the series, “Royal Flash,” was made into a film with the same title in 1975 starring Malcolm McDowell as Flashman. Fraser got the inspiration for his character from Thomas Hughe’s classic novel, “Tom Brown’s School Days,” where Flashman is the school bully. In his Flashman novels, Fraser places the bully in the future serving in the British Army in India. He is a master equestrian and polyglot as well as a scoundrel, coward, drunk, liar, and adulterer. Fraser was adored by readers and received many awards including a knighthood, the Victoria Cross, and the American Medal of Honor. Having served in India and Burma during World War II, Fraser also published a memoir in 1993 of the war in Burma.