RIP George MacDonald Fraser

[ffutures]

Pointed out by angusabranson

George MacDonald Fraser has died

Bollocks. I really liked most of his Flashman books, ditto his military books, and The Pyrates was wonderfully silly fun. I've just realised that one of the characters in FF X derives from it!

Comments

[weishaupt.livejournal.com]

Damn :(

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

The Steel Bonnets was probably the definitive book on the Border Reivers and was a major influence on me moving to this part of the world.

I loved the Flashman papers and just got The Reavers for Christmas. I'll miss his bawdy humour.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I also think of him primarily as an expert on the Reivers. If you are interested in Reiver history you might enjoy this short story written by my husband, also from a Reiver clan.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that's a good one all right, so is the sequel

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

I like that...
At the moment I'm working on a Reivers campaign in a slightly more fantastic 16th century for either Runequest or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Plenty of magic and boglins.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Damnit:(

No more Flashman books:(

[chuk-g.livejournal.com]

That does suck. I've only read the first few Flashman books -- now I'll know to ration them.

[trinfaneb.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize this, but he also did the screenplays for Richard Lester's Musketeer movies. I love those movies and think they are an improvement upon the original books.

[aadler]

Just within the past two weeks, I was telling someone (a friend of my daughter) how much I loved the Flashman books, and of my fear that Fraser — who had, after all, been a soldier in World War II — might die before he got around to writing the book he’d been hinting at since almost the beginning: Sir Harry’s adventures fighting on both sides during the American Civil War. (I also would have enjoyed his take on the battle at Rorke’s Drift, though he touched on the aftermath of that in one section of Flashman and the Tiger.)

Now he’s gone and done it. As has already been said, damn. I do wish he could have tackled the Civil War story earlier, instead of messing around in Abyssinia and the Punjab.

Still, years of wonderful reading.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think there were simply too many stories he wanted to tell, and not enough time. Better than running out of stories first, I suppose.