As dangerous a man

      That was the worse part. Up there, on the top floor, was not only as dangerous a man as I’d ever met, but a top-hole shikari, a night-bird, a trained and skilful hunter who could catch the sound of grass growing.


Flashman and the Tiger, pp.305-6, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Great men are chancy

I had mixed feelings about meeting him; great men are chancy, and best viewed from a distance as the parade goes by.



Flashman and the Dragon, p.90, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



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Drink carefully

I knew it had been hell’s punch-bowl in the old days…

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

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When you least expect it

I should have remembered that men like Nicholas Ignatieff are dangerous anywhere – usually when you least expect it.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.46, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Cardinal folly

Master Ignatieff might be a clever and devilish dangerous man, but he had at least one of the besetting weaknesses of youth: he was as vain as an Etonian duke, and it led him to commit the cardinal folly in a diplomatic man. He talked too much.

Flashman at the Charge, p.207, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Duty and desperate notions

‘Silence, Ryan! says I. ‘I won’t hear of it.’ [an escape attempt] This was one of these dangerous bastards, I could see, full of duty and desperate notions.

Flashman at the Charge, p.121, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Dangerous as sharks

They are rare, but they do exist, and you can only call them adventurers. Rudi was one; it was the excitement, the mischief, that he lived for, more than the reward; the game not the prize. Mad as hatters, mark you, and as dangerous as sharks – they are not to be judged by the standards of yellow-bellies like me. Flashy don’t want anything to do with ‘em, but he knows how their minds work.

Royal Flash, p.219, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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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.

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