In this, the twelfth volume of the Flashman Papers “edited” by George Macdonald Fraser, that
old rascal Sir Harry Flashman is back to save the day as only an arch-cad can. Fans of the preceding eleven books will be familiar with the winning formula the author has employed since the highly popular series started over thirty years ago: With Flashman, the greatest rogue that ever disgraced the Victorian stage, MacDonald Fraser takes us through a very strange chapter in history.
Once again Flashman is plunged into an adventure he would prefer to avoid – if only he could. But, as usual, he has no choice. This
time it’s 1868 and, fresh from desertion from the French Foreign Legion, a close shave with Mexican revolutionaries and the wrath of an Austrian admiral over the virtue of his grand-niece, Flashy needs a quick escape route. In Trieste, he finds his old Rugby school chum Speedicut who promptly charges him with the transport of a cargo of silver to Abyssinia where Sir Bob Napier awaits funds to take his army across the jagged
mountain ranges of an unknown and hostile country to free a band of captives – some of them Britons! – held by the stubborn and very eccentric King Theodore in his mountain fortress of Magdala.
Expecting to be safe home in no time, but, as in all his other adventures, he is unwittingly off on a quest from which any self-respecting coward should run a mile. Napier inevitably sends the reluctant Flashman (disguised as an Indian horse-trader) as an emissary to persuade Queen Masteeat and the fearsome Gallas to join the march on Magdala. There follows brushes with death, dalliances with African beauties, trickery, treachery, and a survival instinct that always ensures he escapes with skin and reputation intact. Flashy triumphs again!
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