A gift mare

. . . some fellows don’t know a gift mare when she kicks ’em in the trinkets.


Flashman on the March, p.56, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


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A pleasing gift

Aye. She’s always had the priceless gift of pleasing, has Elspeth, and making people laugh — for she’s a damned funny woman when she wants to be, a top-hole mimic, and all the more engaging because she plainly hasn't got two brains to rub together. “Never see her but it sets me in humour,” Palmerston used to say. That was her talent, to make folk happy.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.225, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Great gift

His great gift, I was told, was that he got on splendidly with savages — even Boers.



Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.30, Harper Collins, 1995.



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Son of Flashman

He acted like me, he thought like me, and take the paint and braids off him, and by God he looked like me: even the red skin was just weather, and I’ve been darker myself out east. If there was a difference, it was that I suspected (after Greasy Grass) he was brave, poor lad. I think he probably was; got that from Cleonie’s side, no doubt. As to his deep nature, though, I can’t tell; I doubt if he was as big a blackguard as I am, but then he was only half my age. And being so like me, he undoubtedly had the gift of concealing his character.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.342, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Entertaining the troops, and her majesty

This [flogging a colonel] shocked the officers, entertained the troops and delighted her majesty, if the glitter in her eyes was anything to go by . . . as soon as the lashing started I noticed her hand clenching at every stroke, and when the poor devil began to squeal, she grunted with satisfaction. It’s a great gift, knowing the way to a woman’s heart.

Flashman's Lady, pp.235-6, Pan edition, 1979.

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