Her flash arts

      There is a tide in the affairs of men when you simply have to chuck it — as, for example, when you learn that the wife of your unsuspecting bosom is a practised thimblerigger who has used her flash arts to ruin an innocent man.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.260, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Scandal, disgrace, and general devilment

      So this baccarat nonsense, with its splendid possibilities of scandal, disgrace, and general devilment, looked made to order for diversion, provided it was properly mismanaged — which, with Bertie in a fine funk, Coventry and Williams advising, and myself ready to butter the stairs as chance offered, it probably would.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.222, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Any sensible man

Now that’s the kind of talk that sends any sensible man diving for his hat and the nearest doorway, usually; otherwise you find yourself an hour later scribbling IOUs and trying to think of a false name.

Flashman's Lady, p.63, Pan edition, 1979.

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A gambler's game

It’s a gambler’s game [blackjack/vingt-et-un], in which you must decide whether to stay pat at 16 or 17, or risk another card which may break you or, if it’s a small one, may give you a winning score of 20 or 21. I’ve played it from Sydney to Sacramento, and learned to stick at 17, like Aunt Selina. The odds are with the bank, since when the scores are level the banker takes the stakes.

Flash For Freedom!, p.33, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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The only sober man

…and if there was one thing I’ll say for him, he got richer quicker than the only sober man in a poker game.

Flash For Freedom!, p.16, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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London clubs

In my time I’ve played nap in the Australian diggings with gold-dust stakes, held a blackjack bank on a South Sea trader, and been in a poker game in a Dodge City livery stable with the pistols down on the blanket – and I’ve met less sharping in all of ’em put together than you’d find in one evening in a London club.

Royal Flash, p.14, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.

Gambling and the gentry

It’s always the same; the more genteel the company, the fouler the play.

Royal Flash, p.14, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.