One-eyed Riley

It was like seeing the Prince Consort or Gladstone taking the width of the pavement and singing “One-eyed Riley”.


Flashman on the March, p.203, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, pavement.

Flashman on Ireland

Gladstone was standing brooding ove a basin in a nonconformist way, offensively sober as usual, when I staggered in middling tight.
       “Hollo, old ’un says I. “Marching orders at last, hey? Ne’er mind, it happens to all of us. It’s this damned Irish business, I suppose — ” for as you know, he was always fussing over Ireland; no one knew what to do about it, and while the Paddies seemed to be in favour of leaving the lace and going to America, Gladstone was trying to make them keep it; something like that.
      “Where you went wrong,” I told him, “was in not giving the place back to the Pope long ago, and apologising for the condition it’s in.”

Flashman and the Tiger, p.293, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, William Gladstone.

That old fool Gladstone

I believe it was the sight of that old fool Gladstone, standing in the pouring rain holding his special constable’s truncheon as though it were a bunch of lilies, and looking more like an unemployed undertaker’s mute than usual, that made me think seriously about going into politics.

Flash For Freedom!, p.13, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,William Gladstone.