I won't pretend that I've ever needed leave to bolt. I hadn't been given the precious gift of life to cast it away in back alleys, brawling on behalf of fat rajas and randy widows, and I was going like a startled fawn and rejoicing in my youth…" (pg. 180).

Another great Flashman adventure – one of the best. We've had Flashman the scoundrel before, Flashman the lecherous, Flashman the lucky, Flashman the hilarious. This was all of those things and yet it was also something new: it was Flashman doing his duty. Of course, it helps that doing his duty demands, on this occasion, lechery, guile and other damned underhand things besides, including conspiring with a Sikh general to think of ways to lose a battle on purpose...

As ever, Mountain of Light displays all the great qualities that I've come to expect from the Flashman books. It involves a return to India, scene of Flashman's greatest adventures (in my opinion), and that country's uniquely indefinable spirit of exotic adventure acquits itself well here too. It even has as a fairly prominent character the real historical figure of Josiah Harlan, who was inspiration for Kipling's 'The Man Who Would Be King' and consequently for the 1975 film adaptation starring Michael Caine and Sean Connery – one of the best adventure films of all time (I'd put money on it being a favourite of Fraser's, too). There's a lot more espionage and intrigue than in previous books, as Flashman is serving as a diplomatic agent for British interests in the Punjab and doing it as only he can (hint: it involves bedding a voluptuous Indian queen).

It's also, as ever, cracking historical fiction. Fraser's Flashman books are exceptional at introducing us to events and campaigns of the Victorian era which don't figure prominently in the history books, and Mountain of Light is no exception. It gives a gripping account of the First Anglo-Sikh War, a peculiar and yet extremely violent war with all the trimmings: bloodthirsty enemies, incompetent commanders and stirring cavalry charges. And with the future of British India at stake, b'gad. Great ending too: Catch! It's ripping storytelling and a great experience. To appropriate and rejig the words of the Duke of Wellington (who knew Flashman for a scoundrel): By God! I don't think it would have done if I had not been there!
" ( )

Harry Flashman is back again! It almost seems like he won't go away. The year is 1845 and this time Flashy is a spy for Her Majesty's Secret Service! When we last left Flashy he was in Singapore. I have to admit, the start to Flashman and the Mountain of Light was a little slow this time around. It took me two chapters before I really got into it. If you are looking for Fraser's trademark sex and violence, Flashman and the Mountain of Light does not disappoint. It just takes a little longer to get to. For the historians out there, Fraser covers the Sutlej Crisis and of course, the Mountain of Light or Koh-i-Noor, one of the largest diamonds in the world. ( )

Oddly enough, I recall very little of this one, though I believe it explains how Flashman go the Koh-i-nur diamond and how Kipling got the idea for The Man Who Would Be King ( )

Arch-cad Flashman rogers his way around the Punjab. In the process he (rather reluctantly) saves India for John Company. ( )

Our intrepid hero, Harry Flashman, is back for volume nine of the Flashman Papers, a narrative of the life and times of one of the most ne’er-do-well wastrels to ever grace the pages of a published autobiography.

The first five Flashman novels were presented in chronological order. This “packet”, like its three immediate predecessors, acts to fill in a previous “gap” in the Flashman timeline. From a chronological standpoint, the adventures of this novel immediately follow those contained in Flashman’s Lady, wherein we left Flashman on the heels of his escape from Ranavalona, the mad queen of Madagascar, that following his rescue of his wife, Elspeth, from South Sea pirates. Believing himself to be returning to merry, old England, Flashy is diverted instead to India, where the services of the Afghan hero are desperately needed to quell the restless natives.

As in the previous Flashman novels, our Harry is revealed as the premier coward and opportunist of his era; faults which he quite willingly admits and even boasts of. Much as a prior day Forrest Gump, he has a way of finding himself among the most powerful and famous personages of his era, as he takes part in the great events of the period, in this case, quelling the Sikh Rebellion of 1845-46 and securing the Koh-i-Noor, the greatest jewel then in existence.

Aside from uproarious fun and games, the Flashman series is set against historical events and actually serves as an educational experience. On to volume ten of the Flashman Papers. ( )