(SFsite.com, Jan. 2, Steve Silver)

Author George MacDonald Fraser (b.1925) died on January 2. Fraser is best known for his “Flashman” series of novels which covered the exploits of anti-hero Harry Paget Flashman. Set in a range of locations during the nineteenth century, the novels show Flashman, a coward and a bully, against a backdrop of the century’s major conflicts and explain the reality behind how he winds up looking heroic. Fraser wrote twelve Flashman novels as well as other works of historical fiction and had screenwriting credits on The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, Return of the Musketeers, Royal Flash (based on his own novel), Octopussy, and Red Sonja.