Down in Pennyfields

‘I’d apologise for shaming you at the Athenaeum, but the sooner you’re out of that awful hole, the better. If they turf you out, come to me, I’ll put you up for a decent place — Madame Desirée’s, off the Haymarket, or a Chinese establishment I know down in Pennyfields.’



Mr American, p.392, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, shaming.

General Flashman remarks on the capacity of British prime ministers

. . . they took a cab to the famous club, where Sir Harry stared around the imposing hall and remarked that things weren’t what they had once been. ‘Saw Palmerston fall down that staircase — the whole damned way from top to bottom. Tight as a fiddler’s bitch. Finished up wrapped round that pillar there. Can’t see Asquith doing that, somehow. Rotten prime minister. D’you know, I presented him with a school prize once? Must be fifty years ago — ugly little swot he was then, and hasn’t improved over the years. Mind you, Balfour wouldn’t have been any better — “Pretty Fanny”, they used to call him. Only good thing I know about him was that he taught Asquith how to ride a bicycle. Argued some kind of capacity, I suppose — I’d sooner try to teach a whale to play the fiddle.’


Mr American, p.388, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, drunk.

A frightful pub

     Mr Franklin mentioned that he was a member of the Athenaeum; perhaps the General would care to . . .
     ‘That’s a frightful pub,’ said Sir Harry gloomily. ‘Jumped up schoolmasters and bloody bishops. Won’t do your standing any good to take me there — still, if you’re game, I am. Don’t let me fall asleep, though, because if I wake up there in that long room of theirs I’ll think I’m dead and waiting in some ante-room to the Day of Judgement.’


Mr American, p.388, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, member.