George MacDonald Fraser

• Name — George MacDonald Fraser • Honorific Suffix — FRSL • Born — 2 April 1925 • Birthplace — Carlisle, Cumberland, England • Died — 2 January 2008 • Place of death — Douglas, Isle of Man • Occupation — Author • Known for — The Flashman Papers series of novels; McAuslan short stories; screenplay for Octopussy • Children — 3, including Caro Fraser

Fraser was born in Carlisle, England, on 2 April 1925, son of medical doctor William Fraser and nurse Annie Struth, née Donaldson. Both his parents were Scottish. It was his father who passed on to Fraser his love of reading, and a passion for his Scottish heritage. Fraser was educated at Carlisle Grammar School and Glasgow Academy; he later described himself as a poor student due to "sheer laziness". This meant that he was unable to follow his father's wishes and study medicine.

In 1943, during World War II, Fraser enlisted in the Border Regiment and served in the Burma campaign, as recounted in his memoir Quartered Safe Out Here (1993). After completing his Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) course, Fraser was granted a commission into the Gordon Highlanders. He served with them in the Middle East and North Africa immediately after the war, notably in Tripoli. In 1947, Fraser decided against remaining with the army and took up his demobilisation. He wrote semi-autobiographical stories and anecdotes of his time with the Gordon Highlanders in the "McAuslan" series.

After his discharge, Fraser returned to the United Kingdom. Through his father he got a job as a trainee reporter on the Carlisle Journal and married another journalist, Kathleen Hetherington. They travelled to Canada, working on newspapers there, before returning to Scotland. Starting in 1953, Fraser worked for many years as a journalist at the Glasgow Herald newspaper, where he was deputy editor from 1964 until 1969. He briefly held the title of acting editor.

Fraser married Kathleen Hetherington in 1949. They had three children, Simon, Caroline and Nicholas; he had eight grandchildren. He was a supporter of Glasgow football team Partick Thistle. Fraser died in Douglas on 2 January 2008 from cancer, aged 82.

The Flashman series constitute Fraser's major works. There are 12 books in the series: • Flashman (1969) • Royal Flash (1970) • Flash for Freedom! (1971) • Flashman at the Charge (1973) • Flashman in the Great Game (1975) • Flashman's Lady (1977) • Flashman and the Redskins (1982) • Flashman and the Dragon (1985) • Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1990) • Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (1994) • Flashman and the Tiger (1999) • Flashman on the March (2005)

The "Dand MacNeill" or "McAuslan" stories is a series of semi-autobiographical short stories based on the author's experiences in the Gordon Highlanders, in North Africa and Scotland, soon after World War II. Some of the stories were originally bylined "by Dand MacNeill", a play on the regimental motto BYDAND, meaning standfast: • The General Danced at Dawn (1970) • McAuslan in the Rough (1974) • The Sheikh and the Dustbin (1988) • The Complete McAuslan (2000) (All the stories in the three volumes, with a new introduction.)

• The Steel Bonnets (1971), a history of the Border Reivers of the Anglo-Scottish Border. • The Hollywood History of the World: From One Million Years B.C. to Apocalypse Now (1988, revised 1996) The book discusses how Hollywood deals with history. It concludes that the standard of historical analysis in most movies is far better than one might imagine. The text is illustrated by comparative images of figures from history and the actors who portrayed them in film.

• Quartered Safe Out Here (1992), a memoir of his experiences as an infantryman in the Border Regiment during the Burma campaign of World War II • The Light's on at Signpost (2002), a memoir of the author's days writing in Hollywood, interspersed with criticism of political correctness and New Labour.

• Mr American (1980), a novel about a mysterious American in England. • The Pyrates (1983), a tongue-in-cheek novel incorporating all the possible buccaneer film plots into one. • Black Ajax (1997), a novel about Tom Molineaux, a 19th-century black prizefighter in England. (As in Mr American, this novel is also connected to the Flashman series—in this case Sir Harry Flashman's father plays a minor role.) • The Candlemass Road (1993), a short novel about the Border Reivers of the 16th century. • The Reavers (2007), a comic novel of the Border Reivers, loosely based on the Candlemass Road, in the style of his earlier novel The Pyrates. • Captain in Calico (2015), a novel posthumously issued.

• "Long before the decay of lying", Chicago Tribune (1963) [Chicago, Ill] 9 Nov 1969: p6.

Fraser adapted The Candlemass Road, Flash for Freedom and Flashman at the Charge for BBC radio plays. Fraser was also a staunch critic of political correctness and enlarged upon his views on this matter (and others) on the BBC radio show, "Desert Island Discs."

• The Three Musketeers (1973) • The Four Musketeers (1974) • Royal Flash (1975, adapted from his novel) • The Prince and the Pauper (1977) • Octopussy (1983) • Red Sonja (1985) • The Return of the Musketeers (1989)

• Force 10 from Navarone (1978) • Superman (1978) • Ashanti (1979) • Superman II (1980)

Fraser also wrote the following scripts which were never filmed: • Adaptation of The General Danced at Dawn commissioned in 1972 • Prince of Thieves from the Alexandre Dumas' version of the Robin Hood story • Bulldog Drummond – adaptation of the novels commissioned by Thorn EMI in 1985 for producer Tim Burrill • Hannah – adaptation of novel about the life of Helena Rubenstein with director Jack Clayton • Thirteen Against the Bank – true story about a man who leaned how to beat the bank at Monte Carlo • Adaptation of the William Tel story set against the background of the Battle of Mortgarten • The Lone Ranger with director John Landis, circa 1990 • Out of Time – adaptation of a novel The Ice People about the discovery of a man and a woman from an ancient civilisation trapped in ice – for producer Pierre Spengler, circa 1985 • Berry and Co based on a story by Dornford Yates for director Lindsay Anderson • Stortebekker for director Wolfgang Petersen about the medieval German pirate Klaus Störtebeker • Quentin Durward from the novel by Sir Walter Scott • Stillwell, a biopic of Joe Stillwell for director Martin Ritt at MGM (early 1980s) • Adaptation of the James Clavell novel Tai-Pan, intended to star Steve McQueen (not used when the movie was made in 1986) – also a sequel • Adaptation of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas for Dino de Laurentiis and director Richard Fleischer, circa 1985

Fraser's Flashman at the Charge (1973) was serialised in the April and June 1973 issues of Playboy. The climactic sequence of Flashman in the Great Game (1975) was also excerpted there. There is a Flashman Pub in Monte Carlo named after the main character in his Flashman series of books. There was another one in South Africa and a number of Flashman appreciation societies in North America.

George MacDonald Fraser is recorded as screenwriter, novelist, autobiographer, journalist and writer.