George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008) – author, historian, journalist, screenwriter – was born #OTD, 2 April, 1925
“His dedication to strongly researched stories, built firmly on a bedrock of historical fact, but always with an eye to the humour of a situation, was the core of what appealed to me”
Historical novelist Michael Jecks discusses George MacDonald Fraser’s writing for the Royal Literary Fund:
“QUARTERED SAFE OUT HERE … provides insight into what it takes an individual to survive, both (with luck) physically and, more importantly, ethically”
– retired Australian Army officer Jason Thomas on George MacDonald Fraser’s memoir of the #WW2 Burma campaign
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/special-series/dusty-shelves/quartered-safe/
#Scottish #literature #history #memoir #war
2/5
“At one moment when President Richard Nixon was taking part in his inauguration ceremony, he appeared flanked by Lyndon Johnson and Billy Graham […] it was one of those historical coincidences which send a little shudder through the mind…”
– George MacDonald Fraser, THE STEEL BONNETS (1971)
#Scottish #literature #history #Borders #reivers
3/5
“There is a story they tell in Breadalbane:
Gordon of Achruach was at feud with Campbell of Kentallan, who hired certain Gregora, landless men, who took the Gordon unawares while he was hunting in the Mamore. And they cut off his head and put it in a bag to show the Campbell that the work was done. That was the way of it…”
– From “The Gordon Women”, by George MacDonald Fraser. Published in THE SHEIKH AND THE DUSTBIN (1988)
#Scottish #literature #history #folklore #clans
4/5
George MacDonald Fraser on Desert Island Discs in 2001 – available to listen to on BBC Sounds
#Scottish #literature #20thCentury
5/5
@scotlit Oddly, I like Quarterd Safe, and the Complete McAuslan books and Pyrates, but I detested Flashman with a venom.
@Thebratdragon Flashman can be difficult, I agree. He is such an awful character, on any level: his only redeeming feature is his complete honesty (albeit only in his secret memoirs). In many respects he is an embodiment of the British Empire: a magnificent outward show concealing something greedy, lecherous, & utterly self-centred, lurching from crisis to crisis & prepared to do absolutely anything to save his own skin. There is at least some schadenfreude to be had in watching him suffer…
