Flashes of Edwardian age

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 17

Flashes of Edwardian age

Mr American. By George MacDonald Fraser. Collins, 1980.574 pp. $15.95.

(Reviewed by Naylor Hillary) i In Cheyenne, Wyoming, Mark Franklin | had once faced down “Mad Dog” Curry in -? a game of stud poker, a game so fraught | with tension that even Butch Cassidy and * Sundance Longbaugh had thrown in their hands. Years later the quiet, wealthy Mr Franklin found himself dining with King Edward VII in the twilight of Edwardian England, and facing even greater tension as he partnered the King at bridge against a calculating Portuguese count and lovely Alice Keppel, the King’s mistress. The Edwardians were uncertain what to t make of the American gentle man who ■ had come to live permanentlv among them. That old rogue, General Sir Harrv Flashman, remarked that he had “gunfighter’s eyes,” and General Flashman had once been a deputy marshal at Abilene in Kansas. But General Flashman, at 90, was in disgrace. He called the King “that bounder Bertie,” and wanted to pinch Mrs Keppel’s “fine buttocks.” He went even further with a housemaid at Sandringham and had to be sent off in disgrace in the care of his suffragette grand-niece. f George MacDonald Fraser has found a f wonderful device for carrying forward the saga of the “Flashman Papers” into that rascal’s very old age. If Sir Harry can be no more than a bore and an embarrassment to his acquaintance bv the early twentieth century, he can still be woven with success in and out of the tale of a much younger and equally diverting character. Not that Mark Franklin is a coward in the General’s mould. Rather the reverse; and after six Flashman books Mr

Fraser seems to relish having a genuine hero with whom to traverse the five years of English history leading up to the start of World War I. “Mr American” is his best novel vet, as readable and meticulous as any of the Flashman books, and with a special' savour that comes from observing English manners and morals through the eyes of a sympathetic, detached American. Franklin has a dignity which Flashman generally lacked. Perhaps only Fraser could have created an old companion of Butch Cassidy and Kid Curry, and led him to dine with Churchill and Admiral Fisher,' and not left his readers disbelieving. Only Fraser could devise a Western shoot-out in a quiet Norfolk country house and engage his audience deeply in the outcome. “Mr American” may be the best tale that 1981 will have to offer. |