Gloriously politically incorrect.

Flashman is, of course, Moffat's second cousin.

Huzzah! Macdonald Fraser's Flashman is thoroughly reprehensible, he became something of an icon of weasely, brutish scuzziness and breath-taking cheek. Can't think of any one of GF's books or scripts that are PC, can you?

My favourites, being an ex-military chap, are his books about Private McAuslan, which are based on MacDonald Fraser's own experiences in the Border Regiment at the end of, and just after the Second World War. They capture the absurdity of military life very well.

I've just read the article, which was in the Mail, inevitably. I do worry about the "Red Indian" story: should we be bowdlerising, sanitising or rewriting history in this way? Even looking at it from the point of view of a reasonably liberal-minded person, it's the fur-traders who come out of that particular anecdote badly. It's a story about exploitation of the Native American. Why is that name any more acceptable? It's not made up of any Navajo, Sioux or even Mohican words. American comes from Amerigo Vespucci. Native for me always has connotations of 'The Natives are restless' from the kind of literature so unacceptable to the PC movement. I was quite sad to read the article, since I loved Flashman, for his unapologetic caddishness, his prejudices and his utter self-absorption, but felt that Fraser knew that his behaviour was unacceptable. We all laugh at DCI Gene Hunt in Ashes to Ashes, but would we like to face him in a modern police station's interview room? I think not, somehow. It's sad too that Fraser seems no more than an aged reactionary, although he does accept that so many things have changed for the better. The thing is, 'ya cain't stop progress,' even if you think it isn't progress, but merely change. I miss the stiff upper lip myself, amongst other things, but that genie has no interest in returning to his glazed prison. That being the case, it's a small price to pay for some genuine progress in many other areas.

Chuck, I read the article not long after first publication; the google search prompted by a conversation about 'Quartered safe out here' which I have yet to read. It came as a shock to realise that what I had taken to be satirical characterisation of historical figures or episodes in some of his (GMF's) work reflected his personal viewpoint. As you say Ewan, though you wouldn't necessarily want to take Tea with the Flashman character, or for instance, Malcolm, from Ianucci's 'In the Loop' they are sketches, in bold, of a type that hold a certain mythological fascination, horns optional :-)