Flashman has decided to join the 11th Light Dragoons because they
"were at Canterbury, after long service in India, and were unlikely for that reason to be posted abroad". His father is happy to oblige, especially since it will get young Harry out from under his feet as he suspects what his son has been up to under his own roof, with his own mistress no less.

Soon Flashman is serving in the Dragoons & making himself generally popular, especially with the Earl of Cardigan, his CO - not universally popular though. He has managed to estrange himself from fellow officer Bernier, a noted swordsman and a dead shot with a pistol. this is surely of little importance to Flashman though, with his position as one of Lord Cardigans favourites secured. So he continues to cut a dash, in the new uniforms of their re-named company, the 11th Hussars, now under the patronage of the young Queen Victoria's husband.

Life is easy for Flashman. He has plenty of money, drink & women. So it could of course only be malice, which prompted him to turn his attentions to Bernier's mistress. The result of this 'jolly jape' is the duel which first establishes Flashman's (undeserved) reputation as a hero. Prince Albert however is less than impressed by such actions (or at least, the reason behind such actions) and Flashman must leave the Hussars, temporarily at least.

So our 'gallant hero' is sent to Scotland to instruct local militia & deal with Chartist riots. Here is where he lays eyes on his wife-to-be. And not only his eyes, I might add. Which is pretty much how she came to be his wife, at her family's insistence. Not that they particularly wished for Flashman as a son-in-law. They'd much rather he'd fought the duel they offered. But without the means to cheat on this occasion, unlike the last, our Flashman is not going to risk actually being shot.

Ah, but all is not running smoothly for poor Flashy. Lord Cardigan does not approve of his new bride, her father being only a mill owner. This is considered much too lowly for the wife of a Hussar and since wife she is, it is the Hussars who must bid farewell to Flashman.

Leaving Elspeth (his bride) behind under his father's care, he embarks for India, where he has been posted. And thence to Afghanistan, armed with his talent for languages and horsemanship, to play his ignominious part in one of history's greatest military blunders.

Let me however, point out at this stage that Flashman is a fictitious character. Despite GMF's claims to have merely edited The Flashman Papers, the same which turned up in a Midlands sale room, he is entirely responsible for the work within these pages. Much of his humour is ironic, but the crowning irony must have been when at least one American professor believed the papers and Harry Flashman really existed. As a Borderer, with a Borderer's sense of humour, that must have tickled him immensely. One wonders also, if the Cohen brothers had not been reading Flashy when they proclaimed Fargo, as being based on a true story, which of course it wasn't.

Flashman may be fictitious, but the historical events he recounts are not. GMF has researched these events extensively and all are represented as accurately as possible. Where Flashman's account differs from the official version, we are given notes by GMF explaining what those differences are. These are few and unobtrusive.

There are some laugh out loud moments within the book, but as I say, much of the humour is wry and ironic. Non more ironic than Flashman himself. The hero, who is no hero at all. An anti-hero. Between these pages he is cruel, cowardly, treacherous, despicable and an incessant philanderer to boot . All in all, he is rotten to the core, yet relates his appalling actions with aplomb, and a disarming honesty.

Do we empathise with him? Not exactly! It's more that we warm to his style, as he relates his tale of a charmed life and we follow his adventures with morbid fascination, wondering all the while if he can stoop any lower. He usually doesn't disappoint.