George MacDonald Fraser, the author of the Flashman series of books has passed away. The Flashman series is a brilliant set of books set in the later half of the 19th Century and is a great teacher about the period as well as being a brilliant set of novels. Sir Harry Flashman is a scoundrel and a rake and has few redeeming features, yet remains engaging in a way that many anti-heroes do not. Mr. Fraser was also a prolific author on the Border Reivers who raided the English/Scottish borders and love the border people. He was also the screenwriter for the Three and Four Musketeers movies of the 1970s, which remain my favorite swashbuckling movies of all time. He was, along with J.R.R. Tolkien one of the two authors who has most shaped my life, may he rest in peace.

Edit: The Guardians’s Obit and the Telegraph’s

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Books, History, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.