George MacDonald Fraser

George MacDonald Fraser (1925 - 2008) was a British writer known for his humorous historical fiction. Best known for the Flashman series, he also wrote the McAuslan series (inspired by his military service in the 1940s, which also resulted in the non-fiction memoir Quartered Safe Out Here) and several stand-alone novels.

He also worked as a screenwriter, writing or co-writing the screenplays to the James Bond film Octopussy, Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers 1973 and sequels, and Lester's film version of Fraser's own Royal Flash, among others.


 * Ancient Egypt
 * Evil Brit


 * Flashman series
 * The Pyrates
 * McAuslan
 * The Steel Bonnets


 * Barbarian Tribe: Scottish Bordermen in The Reavers
 * Big Brother Instinct: In Quartered Safe Out Here the author meets in Burma, an Old Soldier who had once been a Hired Gun. This man guards the author's winnings after a card game. The Author also learns that this particular man had been sending his pay home for twenty years to take care of his little brother.
 * Blood Knight. Perhaps even Heroic Sociopath: The author met one of these in World War II. He was sent to an outpost to carry a rocket launcher that the commander had ordered from headquarters, to blow up escaping enemy river barges. This commander was an eccentric sapper with a ragtag band of local mercenaries, and he absolutely loved killing Japanese.
 * Deadpan Snarker: the author
 * Kukris Are Kool
 * My Girl Back Home
 * Nepali With Nasty Knives: The author met a number of these in Burma. He also had one who was a friend of his at officers school.
 * Oop North
 * Political Correctness Gone Mad: GMF was simply not a progressive sort on this front. His later memoirs - Quartered Safe Out Here and Light's On At Signpost especially - are increasingly full of snark directed at political correctness. He is no knee-jerk, though. While he threatens throughout Quartered Safe Out Here to deliver a fiery politically incorrect opinion on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when he gets down to cases he notes with approval that the V-J Day 50th anniversary celebrations were mercifully free of moralizing on the subject. He also posits a hypothetical scenario in which he and his squadmates in Burma are presented with the full ramifications of the bombings and given the choice to drop the bombs or continue their ground war. Fraser theorizes that his comrades would grouse and moan at extreme length - and then prepare to march on up the road rather than see the bombs dropped.
 * Proud Warrior Race: Scottish and English Bordermen in Quartered Safe Out Here; they are actually referred to as "A martial race of men".
 * Regency England