Plainly must

…the man was plainly must,* doolali, afflicted of Allah, too long in the hills altogether — but one doesn’t like to say so, straight out, not to a chap who affects tartan pants and has a Khyber knife across his lap.


*Must is the madness of the rogue elephant. Doolali = insane, from Deolali Camp, inland from Bombay, where generations of British soldiers (including the editor) were received in India, and were supposedly affected by sunstroke.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, pp.203-04, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



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Gordana Khan

…this incredible tartan Nemesis with his Khyber knife and Yankee twang, eyeing me bleakly as I punished his malt?


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.105, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



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Red tartan

He was a real Pathan mercenary, with iron moustaches and a nose like a hatchet — but he was dressed from top to toe, puggaree,* robe and pyjamas, in the red tartan of the 79th Highlanders!


*Turban.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, pp.63-4, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.


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Endless pictures of German royalty

They don’t often invite me to Balmoral nowadays, which is a blessing; those damned tartan carpets always put me off my food, to say nothing of the endless pictures of German royalty and that unspeakable statue of the Prince Consort standing knock-kneed in a kilt.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.11, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,kilt, Prince Albert.