Delicious little balls

There was a curried pastry which Uliba-Wark divided among the four of us, and some delicious little balls like the bittebolle they serve n Holland, only these weren’t meat but, as I discovered on inquiry, powdered locusts bound with fat. It was too late by then, so I calmed my stomach with some of the liquor they call tej, which is a fermentation of honey and barley, guaranteed to put you under the table if you ain’t careful, but capital in moderation.


Flashman on the March, p.68, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


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The fodder of her native heath

      We were at breakfast, which for me in my indulgent age was Russian style (sausage, brandy, and coffee and for her the fodder of her native heath: porridge, ham, eggs, black pudding, some piscine abomination called Arbroath smokies, oatcakes, rolls, and marmalade (God knows how she’s kept her figure), while we read the morning journals.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.254, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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This means nothing to me

 . . . the whole quarter reeked of money, privilege, and luxury in doubtful taste. It was reckoned to be the richest Upper Ten outside London, and the two hundred families of princes, counts, and assorted titled trash spent ten million quid among ’em per annum, which ain’t bad for gaslight and groceries. They spent more, ate more, drank more, danced more, and fornicated more than any other capital on earth (and that's Fetridge* talking, not me) . . .

*Footnote 23. W. Pembroke Fetridge was the author of The American Traveller's Guide: Harper's Handbook for Travellers in Europe, which first appeared in 1862. Flashman probably had the 1871 edition.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.185, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Flashman on toast

“ ‘It’s an English school for you, my son,’ he told me. ‘Hellish places, by all accounts, rations a Siberian moujik wouldn’t touch, and less civilised behaviour than you’d meet in the Congo, but I’m told there’s no education like it − a lifetime’s trainin’ in knavery packed into six years. No wonder they rule half the world. Why, if I’d been to Eton or Harrow, I’d have had Flashman on toast!’ ”


Flashman and the Tiger, p.77, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Decent grub

So I waited while he gorged his way through half a dozen overblown courses — why the French must clart decent grub with glutinous sauces beats me…


Flashman and the Tiger, p.20, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Bah! Hamburger!

[They]… gave me a disgusting luncheon consisting of a cake of fried chopped beef smothered in onions and train oil, and left me to my own devices for a couple of hours.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.170, Harper Collins, 1995.


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Beat their bellies

…I was content to idle my way through the dinner, which like all American meals was gargantuan and over-rich; how the devil they can put away a massive breakfast of steak, ham, eggs, terrapin, or giant oysters, two dinners at noon and five, and still be fit to beat their bellies at supper, is beyond me; even Annette, who wasn’t two pisspots and a handle high, worked her way through five courses without breaking a sweat on her pale immaculate brow.

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, pp.139-40, Harper Collins, 1995.


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Foreign service

      I’ve never cared, much, for service with foreign forces. At best it’s unfamiliar and uncomfortable, and the rations are likely to pay havoc with your innards. The American Confederates weren’t bad, I suppose, bar their habit of spitting on carpets, and the worse I can say of the Yankees is that they took soldiering seriously and seemed to be under the impression that they had invented it.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.214, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



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Shelley or one of those chaps

…the blighter was really mad about her, and not just to board and scuttle her, either, but with all the pure, romantic trimmings, like Shelley or one of those chaps. astonishing – well, I love her myself, always have, but not to put me off my food.

Flashman's Lady, p.197, Pan edition, 1979.

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A sharp-set man

I was sharp-set, and… laid into the ham and cold fowls, and chatted affably to the nobs and their ladies, who were making the most of the grub themselves, as the Germans always do.

Royal Flash, p.155, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.