Desperate bad acting

You never saw such desperate bad acting — hands raised, eyes and mouth agog, worse than Irving hearing the bells. Then he glared like a mad marmoset, one finger outthrust.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.57, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, acting.

Play it easy and modest

…I watched with approval, for I knew this game of old, having played it myself a hundred times in the days when I was being hero-worshipped. It’s almost a ritual: they flatter you by praising your words or actions, and you play it easy and modest, but just giving a hint every now and then, in a humorous way, what a desperate fellow you are, because that’s what they love above all.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, pp.214-15, Harper Collins, 1995.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, hero.

In search of a hero

     It’s being six foot two and desperate-looking, that does it, you know; if I’d been short-arsed with no chin and knock-knees, no one in search of a hero would have looked at me twice.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.130, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, hero.

Strange or desperate

It’s been my experience that however strange or desperate the plight you may find yourself in, if there’s nothing else for it, you just get on with the business in hand as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

Flashman's Lady, p.233, Pan edition, 1979.

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