Jingo and ginger

He’d given his troops jingo and ginger, and now he was striding off to his tent with a face like a wet week, leaving ’em stunned and silent with the fight knocked clean out of them.


Flashman on the March, p.219, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


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The coolest fish

      If you’ve read Tom Brown you may remember a worthy called Crab Jones, of whom Hughes said that he was the coolest fish in Rugby, and if he were tumbled into the moon this minute he’d pick himself up without taking his hands out of his pockets. Bob Napier always reminded me of Crab, in the Sikh War, the Mutiny, China, and along the frontier: the same sure, unhurried style, the quiet voice, the methodical calm that drove his more excitable subordinates wild. He was also the best engineer in the army, and the most successful commander of troop I ever knew.

Flashman on the March, p.49, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.



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No sight more inspiring

      I felt duty bound to crawl out and see them off in the morning, raw and misty as it was; there’s no sight more inspiring or heart-warming than troops marching out to battle when you ain’t going with them.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.279, 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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Leading the troops

I advanced with them, of course, pausing only to encourage those in the rear with manly cries, until I reckoned there were about a score in front of me; then I lit out in pursuit of the vanguard, not leading from behind, exactly – more from the middle, really, which is the safest place to be unless you’re up against civilized artillery.

Flashman's Lady, pp.169-70, Pan edition, 1979.

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The sudden raid

…these fellows were much the same as Afghans, and I knew their way of working. The sudden raid, the surprise attack, the mad hacking melee (I shuddered at the recollection), and then up and away before civilized troops have rubbed the sleep from their eyes.

Flashman at the Charge, p.224, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Afghans, raid.