Flash extinguished

Not much attention has been paid to the death last week of the British novelist George MacDonald Fraser, creator of the Flashman series of picaresque novels. Like Patrick O'Brian, he had a small cult following in the United States. Unlike O'Brian, however, he never really broke out with the larger reading public on this side of the Atlantic. Most people would draw a blank if you were to mention his name. Here's a good piece about Fraser from the Times of London.

Fraser was the author of the 11 novels in the Flashman series, beginning in 1969 with "Flashman (from the Flashman Papers, 1839-1842)." The central fiction is that the stories are based on the found papers of Sir Harry Flashman.

Fraser was 82, and purported always to dislike his dashing adventurer, who turns up Zelig-like in many of the major events of world history in the Victorian age, and always makes time for the ladies. Flashman is the Charlie Wilson of his time. But despite his identity as a shameless rake, Flashman was beloved of many female readers. I know of at least one, former Globe columnist Diane White, who devoured the books and reviewed a few for the Globe.