George MacDonald Fraser

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George MacDonald Fraser OBE (born April 2, 1925 in Carlisle , † January 2, 2008 in Strang, Isle of Man ) was a Scottish author . He mainly wrote historical novels , such as the Flashman Papers , but also historical textbooks and scripts for films .

Life

George MacDonald Fraser grew up in Scotland to Scottish parents , but was born on the English side of the border in Carlisle. As a nineteen-year-old soldier, he took part in the last British campaign in World War II in 1945 in Burma (in the Black Cat Division ), the Indian 17th Infantry Division. He was promoted to Lance Corporal four times and demoted to common three times. He wrote about this in his autobiographical work Quartered Safe Out Here . Shortly after the war, he served with the Gordon Highlanders in North Africa and Scotland; his experiences there inspired him to write his “McAuslan” stories.

He later quit his job and switched to journalism . He started at The Scotsman , but quit after being passed over several times during the promotion (because of his English origins, as he said). He became a writer and screenwriter and wrote the scripts for The Three Musketeers (1973) (and the sequels) by Richard Lester and the James Bond film Octopussy (1983) by John Glen .

However, he became famous above all with a series of historical novels, the Flashman Papers , the twelve volumes of which appeared from 1969 to 2005 and have been reprinted since 2011. These are the fictional memoirs of Sir Harry Flashman, a retired British officer who looks back on a military career serving the British Empire and other adventures between 1840 and 1890.

Fraser had been married to reporter Kathleen Hetherington since 1949. From this marriage come a daughter, the writer Caroline 'Caro' Fraser (* 1953) and the sons Simon (* 1950) and Nicolas (* 1955).

George MacDonald Fraser died on 2 January 2008 at cancer .

Works

Fiction

Flashman cycle
  • Volume 1: Flashman. From the Flashman Papers 1839-1842 . Pan Books, London 1998, ISBN 0-330-02484-1 (EA London 1969)
    • German translation: Flashman in Afghanistan . Kübler Verlag, Lampertheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-942270-91-5 (former title: Flashman. Karrieren eines Kavaliers , 1971 or Flashman. In the service of Her Majesty , 1984).
    • German audio book: Flashman in Afghanistan . Kübler Verlag, Lampertheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-942270-81-6 (9 CDs).
  • Volume 2: Royal Flash. From the Flashman Papers 1842/43 and 1847/48 . HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-651126-0 (EA London 1970)
    • German translation: Royal Flash. Flashman in Germany, 1842/43 and 1847/48 . Kübler Verlag, Lampertheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-942270-92-2 (former title: Flashman, Prince of Denmark , 1972).
    • German audio book: Royal Flash. Flashman in Germany, 1842/43 and 1847/48 . Kübler Verlag, Lampertheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-942270-82-3 (9 CDs).
  • Volume 3: Flash for Freedom. From the Flashman Papers 1848-1849 . HarperCollins, London 1996, ISBN 0-00-222287-6 (EA London 1971)
    • German translation: Flashman, hero of freedom . Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1984, ISBN 3-548-21005-8 (EA Munich 1977).
    • German audio book: Flashman, hero of freedom . Kübler Verlag, Lampertheim 2012, ISBN 978-3-942270-83-0 (10 CDs).
  • Volume 4: Flashman at the charge. From the Flashman Papers 1854-1855 . HarperCollins, London 1996, ISBN 0-00-617676-3 (EA London 1973).
  • Volume 5: Flashman in the great game . HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-651299-2 (EA London 1975).
  • Volume 6: Flashmans Lady . Fontana Books, London 1989, ISBN 0-00-617773-5 (EA London 1977).
    • German translation: Flashmans Lady . Kuebler Verlag, Lampertheim 2013, ISBN 978-3-942270-96-0 (former title: Flashman in Borneo )
  • Volume 7: Flashman and the Redskins. From the Flashman Papers 1849-1850 and 1875-1876 . Collins, London 1982, ISBN 0-00-222661-8 (EA London 1982).
  • Volume 8: Flashman and the Dragon. From the Flashman Papers 1860 . Collins Havill Books, London 1985, ISBN 0-00-271245-8 .
    • German translation: Flashman and the Chinese dragon . Kuebler Verlag, Lampertheim, 2014, ISBN 978-3-942270-98-4 .
  • Volume 9: Flashman and the Mountain of Light . HarperCollins, London 1990, ISBN 0-00-778625-5 .
    • German translation: Flashman and the mountain of light . Strange Verlag, Erkrath 2003, ISBN 3-89064-814-2 .
  • Volume 10: Flashman and the Angel of the Lord. From the Flashman Papers 1858-1859 . Collins Havill Books, London 1994, ISBN 0-00-273015-4 .
  • Volume 11: Flashman and the Tiger. And other extracts from the Flashman Papers . HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-225951-6 .
    • English audio book: Flashman and the Tiger . Books on Tape, Newport Beach, Cal. 2000, ISBN 0-7366-6074-7 (11 CDs, read by David Case).
  • Volume 12: Flashman on the March . HarperCollins, London 2005, ISBN 0-00-719740-3 .
    • English audio book: Flashman on the march . Isis Audio Books, Oxford 2005, ISBN 0-7531-2478-5 (9 CDs).
McAuslan stories
  • The General danced at dawn . Barrie & Jenkins, London 1970.
  • McAuslan in the rough, and other stories , Barrie & Jenkins, London 1974.
  • The sheikh and the dustbin, and other McAuslan stories . Collins Harvill Books, London 1988.
  • The complete McAuslan . Harper Collins, London 2000, ISBN 0-00-651371-9 .
Individual works

Non-fiction

  • The Steel Bonnets. The story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers . Harper Collins, London 1995, ISBN 0-00-272746-3 (EA London 1971).
  • The Hollywood History of the World. From One Million Years BC to Apocalypse Now . Harvill Press, London 1996, ISBN 1-86046-201-4 (EA London 1988)

Autobiographies

  • Quartered Safe Out Here. A recollection of the war in Burma . Harvill Books, London 1992, ISBN 0-00-710593-2 .
  • The Light's on at Signpost . Harper Collins, London 2002, ISBN 0-00-713646-3

Scripts

Individual evidence

  1. independent.co.uk
  2. Addresses the First Anglo-Afghan War 1839 to 1842 .
  3. Thematizes the Schleswig-Holstein survey , the German Revolution of 1848/1849 and satirizes the film The Prisoner of Zenda .
  4. Addresses the slave trade between Africa and the USA before the Civil War
  5. Thematized u. a. the attack by the Light Brigade (→ Crimean War ).
  6. Addresses the Great Uprising in British India in 1857 .
  7. Thematizes James Brooke in Borneo and Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar.
  8. Addresses the California Gold Rush and the Battle of the Little Big Horn .
  9. Addresses the Opium War and the Taiping Uprising .
  10. Addresses the first war against the Sikhs and the Koh-i-Noor .
  11. Thematizes the battle of John Browns (→ John Brown's Body ) and the battle for Harpers Ferry .
  12. Contents: The Road to Charing Cross. - The subbleties of Baccarat. - Flahman and the Tiger.
  13. Jump up ↑ In the first story, the attempted assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1853 and the Berlin Congress of 1878 is discussed; the second story deals with the Tranby Croft scandal under King Edward VII and in the last the Sherlock Holmes story " The Empty House " and the Zulu War .
  14. Addresses the Foreign Legion , the French Intervention in Mexico 1862/66 and the British Ethiopia Expedition of 1868 .
  15. Contents: Monsoon selection board. - Silence in the ranks. - Play up, play up, and get here in. - Wee Willie. - The General danced at dawn. - Night run to Palestine. - The whiskey and the music. - Guard at the catle. - McAuslan's court-martial.
  16. Contents: Go Geesty. - Johnnie Cope in the morning. - General knowledge, private information. - Parfit gentil knight, but ... - Fly men. - McAuslan in the rough. - His Majesty says good-day.
  17. Contents: The servant problem. - Captain Errol. - The constipation of O'Brien. - The sheikh and the dustbin. - McAuslan, Lance corporal. - The Gordon Women. - Ye mind jie die, Fletcher? - extraduction.
  18. Contents: The General danced at dawn. - McAuslan in the rough, and other stories. - The sheikh and the dustbin, and other McAuslan stories.
  19. A parody of pirate movie plots.
  20. Thematizes the successes of the boxer Tom Molineaux and Thomas Molyneux (1784–1818); Flashman's father plays a supporting role.
  21. The aging Flashman plays a supporting role in this novel.
  22. ^ Story about the Border Reivers .
  23. Thematizes the Border Reivers from the Middle Ages to the 16th century.
  24. Investigation of the historical accuracy of Hollywood films with positive results.
  25. His time in World War II .
  26. His time as a screenwriter; with swipes against New Labor and Political Correctness .

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