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I have praised George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series before and I shall probably continue to do so as long as I continue to read them; they are a national treasure and our equivalent of Dumas or Sienkiewicz. Whilst "Flashman and the Redskins" is not about English Victorian history it is still about that amazing era and manages to both amuse and inform us in a wonderfully approachable manner - there are many students of history who would benefit by reading the stuff. Fraser doesn't just tell us a great story but also makes us very aware of how outstanding the opening up of the West really was - and how sudden! He fills his tale with facts, balancing "fiction" with true scholarship and backed up by a long bibliography so that you can go off and really get to grips with the era. I was almost blown apart by the fact that it was possible for a young child to travel west across the "empty" plains in a waggon train surviving Indian attacks, desperate conditions, see oceans of buffalo roll over the landscape and then, in his later years make the same trip in reverse either by train or plane and see the landscape changed utterly, with towns and great cities where once stood a burning waggon and lay only corpses. This is a great book. Our hero Flashman's morals are still a bit questionable at times but he is no coward, merely a survivor surrounded by larger-than-life characters who have no real sense of adventure, fun or their own mortality. This one comes HIGHLY recommended!

2023-08-04 06:31