George MacDonald Fraser

Mr. Fraser was born April 2, 1925, in Carlisle, England and died January 2, 2008 on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. His father was a doctor who passed on to his son a love of reading and a passion for his Scottish heritage. Mr. Fraser was a poor student -- "sheer laziness," as he put it -- who entered the Army at 18 and was demoted to private three times. He eventually became an officer in a Scottish regiment that fought bloody hand-to-hand battles with the Japanese in Burma. In 1993, Mr. Fraser published a memoir of his military experiences, "Quartered Safe Out Here," that has been hailed as one of the finest autobiographies of World War II. He worked at newspapers in England and Canada before becoming an editor with the Glasgow Herald from 1953 to 1969. Famous for his series of well-researched historical tales about an unscrupulous Victorian scoundrel, Sir Harry Flashman, chronicled the misadventures of one of the most memorable characters of modern British fiction. The Flashman series constitute Fraser's major works. There are 12 books in the series: * Flashman (1969) * Royal Flash (1970) * Flash for Freedom! (1971) * Flashman at the Charge (1973) * Flashman in the Great Game (1975) * Flashman's Lady (1977) * Flashman and the Redskins (1982) * Flashman and the Dragon (1985) * Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1990) * Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (1994) * Flashman and the Tiger (1999) * Flashman on the March (2005)