Not exactly Eric Newby

      If you suppose, by the way, that I am unduly susceptible, you should read the recollections of J.A. St John, Esq., who travelled in Abyssinia in the 1840s and appears to have spent most of his time goggling at boobies, on which he was obviously an authority.


Flashman on the March, p.78, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.



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I speak with authority

      Wounds, believe it or not, can be quite handy, if you know how to make use of them. I speak with authority, having taken over twenty in my time, from my broken thigh at Piper’s Fort to the self-inflicted graze which enabled me to collapse artistically during the Boxer Rising (I was seventy-eight at the time, an age at which you can get away with a lot).


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.309, Harper Collins, 1995.


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He'd still be employable today

Mangles, at the Board of Control in London, had described it as ‘tranquil beneath the Company’s benevolent rule’, but he was a pompous ass with a talent for talking complete bosh on subjects on which he was an authority.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.65, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,pompous, talent.

Obviously not a consultant then

He was an authority, of the true kind who never pretends more than he knows…

Royal Flash, p.174, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,expert.

The steel underneath

Now, as he said those words, he ceased to be a waggish madman; his voice was as gentle as ever, but there was no mistaking the steel underneath. Suddenly things became real again, and I understood that the kindly smiling man before me was strong in a way that folk like Gul Shah could never be: strong and dangerous.

Flashman, p.137, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Akbar Khan.