"If (God) suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can. And, yes Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it. But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to such a pass. Our natural business lies in escaping."

One of the most endearing qualities of author George MacDonald Fraser's anti-heroic protagonist, Harry Flashman, is his natural cowardice, which he freely admits with a certain degree of pride. Flashy is an expert at escaping; More would have been impressed.

In that volume of his memoirs entitled FLASHMAN'S LADY, Flashy is still young in the mid-1840s. His talent for a prudent and precipitous departure has yet to mature, as evidenced by his delayed response when beset by thugs in a dodgy section of Singapore:

"I'm not proud of what happened in the next moment. Of course, I was very young and thoughtless, and my great days of instant flight and evasion were still ahead of me, but even so, with ... my native cowardice to boot, my reaction was inexcusable ... in my youthful folly and ignorance, I absolutely stood there gaping ..."

The larger portion of this book's plot involves the kidnapping of Flashy's beautiful but scatterbrained wife, Elspeth, by a certain Don Solomon Haslam, a moneyed and mannered member of English high society who's not what he seems. Harry's determination to stay out of harm's way is severely taxed as he pursues Elspeth's rescue into the pirate-infested interior of Borneo, and later into Madagascar, where Flashy finds himself the slave of that island's mad and despotic queen, Ranavalona.

A chief attraction of Fraser's Flashman series is the knowledge it gives the reader about historical and factual, but arcane, events and places. In FLASHMAN'S LADY, the reader is apprised of the private war against the pirates of the East Indies by the eccentric English imperialist, James Brooke, and the reign of terror perpetuated by that female Caligula of the period, Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar. Indeed, the author's research into the latter has prompted me to place a non-fiction history of the subject on my Wish List.

Deep down, I think, Flashy's personal appeal is based on the realization that he's Everyman, whether one would wish to admit it or not. Our natural preference is to escape, and it's only through blundering circumstance, good luck, or an odd quirk of fate that any one of us might, like Harry himself, be perceived a hero by our fellows.


Mr & Mrs Flash make a great couple !   July 4, 2005
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have come to the Flashman papers quite late (nearly 40 years after they first appeared). I am now working my way through them in chronological order of which Flashman's Lady is the 3rd book, but it was the 6th to be released. Put simply this is the best I have read yet, the writing has matured and so have the characters with Flashman more of himself and less constrained by the original portrait of him in Tom Brown's Schooldays. This adventure sees Flash attempting to counter the not-so subtle advances on his wife which lead to what is surely the funniest cricket match ever written and thereafter out to Singapore and Borneo before concluding in Madagascar. What is amazing is that the key characters are all unbelievable and yet real historicial people faithfully recorded and they only really make sense in either Flashman's world or British colonial history. If you haven't read Flashman my honest advice is to start at the first book and then read all of them because they follow a thread. In my experience though it is this book which brings together Flashman's cynicism and earthy view of the world and the Empire into a convincing view of his times. The Flashman books get better and better and if you have read Royal Flash and were disappointed then don't give up as things take off magnificently from here on in.


His greatest adventure?   May 6, 2005
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

This Installment in the life of the British EMpire's most celebrated poltroon sees him playing criket with Pirates, having his wife kidnapped and him ending up as a slave in Madagascar.

Its also laugh-out-loud funny.

I delighted in Flashmans honesty in describing his cowardly, womanising adventures. His fondness for his wife and the way he describes her will have you in tears


Run, Elspeth, and be gone, please   November 30, 2004
 1 out of 4 found this review helpful

Flashy's gorgeous wife is kidnapped by a lascivious Old Etonian who turns out to be the most fearsome pirate of south-east Asia!! Off goes Flashy, much against his true wishes, to do his duty (although, as ever, not too much!). Fraser gives us the usual asides we've come to expect with Flashy as he damns to the skies bravery, gallantry and any other virtue paraded before him.
The story's historical backdrop involves descriptions of the vigilante pirate-hunter James Brooke, scourge of the criminals of south-east Asia, who assists Flashy in his quest, damned if he'll allow the callous act of kidnapping an English rose to go unpunished. Flashman, as usual, is more than happy to let someone else do the dirty work and, as ever, the one most alert to his yellow behaviour is the arch-villain. Madagascar plays an important role too as the action moves to the island off eastern Africa and Fraser indulges himself with gory and colourful descriptions of the reign of Queen Ranavalona.
Still, not the most gripping of the Flashman books; to be honest, I was as uninterested in his rescuing Elspeth as he was at times. A good excuse for a little more history and plenty of the usual sardonic wit; rants against the fools who built the Empire; and so on, but not the most compelling nor the most funny in the series.