The coolest fish

      If you’ve read Tom Brown you may remember a worthy called Crab Jones, of whom Hughes said that he was the coolest fish in Rugby, and if he were tumbled into the moon this minute he’d pick himself up without taking his hands out of his pockets. Bob Napier always reminded me of Crab, in the Sikh War, the Mutiny, China, and along the frontier: the same sure, unhurried style, the quiet voice, the methodical calm that drove his more excitable subordinates wild. He was also the best engineer in the army, and the most successful commander of troop I ever knew.

Flashman on the March, p.49, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.



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Before the tempest

      “Why not — have you heard something?”
      “Just the barra choop,” says he, grinning all over his ugly mug.
      “What the devil’s that?”
      “You don’t know — an old Khyber hand like you? Barra choop — the silent time before the tempest.” He cocked his head. “Yes, sir, I can hear it all right.”


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.159, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



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A calm man

He had a cheroot going again; he glanced around, drawing on it, before continuing. ‘I was watching you; I do not think you are a calm man.’
      Heaven alone knew what could have given him that impression. To demonstrate my sang-froid I uttered a falsetto moan of inquiry.

Flashman's Lady, p.263, Pan edition, 1979.

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Remember the golden rule

However fearful my present predicament, however horrid the odds and dangers ahead, they’d get no better with being fretted over. It ain’t always easy, if your knees knock as hard as mine, but you must remember the golden rule: when the game’s going against you, stay calm – and cheat.

Flashman at the Charge, p.210, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,golden rule, cheat.