The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Chronicles #24 ｜ Flashman with Dan Tubb

00:00:00.000 Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Chronicles where today we're going to have

00:00:17.940 an enormous amount of fun talking all about Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser and who

00:00:25.000 better to talk about it with than the office's very own Flash Dan. Thank you for joining Dan.

00:00:32.600 I noticed when you were alighted upon doing this book you didn't ask me if I had read them you

00:00:37.140 simply asked if I wanted to do the Chronicles. Of course I read them. I took you for a Flashman

00:00:42.280 man. Yes absolutely. Best series of books ever written. Well that really is what we have to say

00:00:48.140 just straight out of the gate because obviously we're at the point now where at the time of

00:00:52.280 recording this this is probably Chronicles number 22, 23 something like that and so we've covered

00:00:59.060 quite a bit by this point. You know we've talked about Lovecraft, we've talked about medieval German

00:01:04.880 epics, we've talked about all sorts of different types of story. This is the spiciest thing that 1.00

00:01:11.260 we have done so far easily and by far the most based. Yes I mean you couldn't write a book like

00:01:18.880 that today without getting arrested. No. I mean I don't know how much I can say to be honest because

00:01:27.120 I mean we would get arrested if I described it too accurately but for example Flashman himself is

00:01:32.360 described as black on account of being you know having black hair and black whiskers. Yes. You know

00:01:37.840 you might think that gets a bit confusing when he travels south of Madrid but he's got an entirely

00:01:42.080 different word for those characters and he uses it as often as he possibly can. Yes he's very liberal.

00:01:47.920 As well as all manner of slurs for all types of foreigners, European harlots and so on.

00:01:54.340 Oh and yes and his father-in-law's Morrison's business companions. Those are the tribe who

00:02:03.140 unfortunately Flashman in the book that I've caught up to as I'm rereading them is currently serving on a

00:02:09.200 slaving ship on its way down the coast of Africa. Yes. Charged by the Brazilians. Sam Hyde's Brazilians. 0.93

00:02:17.520 Yes. But no it's Flashman gets up to all sorts. Yes. And he's absolutely unswavering in his

00:02:24.980 description of the Victorian world. And this is probably one of the best. Obviously I've only read

00:02:32.700 the first novel so far but and I've heard it described this way before. He's kind of a Victorian

00:02:38.380 Forrest Gump but not retarded. You know he just sort of travels through events. He's just passing 1.00

00:02:44.600 through world events constantly. But whereas Forrest Gump of course does it as a retard and has no real 1.00

00:02:52.420 awareness of what's going on with Flashman. Oh he's entirely aware of what's going on and he's

00:02:57.740 trying to escape every single one of them. Yeah well that's the brilliant thing about these books

00:03:02.700 is you know even if you don't like the sort of the adventuring and the whoring and the loot seeking 0.98

00:03:10.960 that he does. Yes. You can just read them as history because they are all of them. They're absolute

00:03:15.700 brilliant history. So George MacDonald who wrote them he he's a sort of a bit of an amateur historian

00:03:23.940 but I mean one of those really dedicated ones. So when before he writes a book like this he will

00:03:28.740 read every history, every journal from the period, he'll read every sort of declassified. Bear in mind

00:03:35.460 this is you know 200 years ago so it's quite easy for him to dig up you know the the military letters

00:03:40.740 and stuff like that all declassified at this point. Yes. And so he knows what happened on these campaigns

00:03:45.460 inside out. Now the first book is about the the adventures in Afghanistan and the British retreat from

00:03:50.900 Afghanistan but he knows it inside out and and rather than you know if you're going to learn 1.00

00:03:55.840 Victorian military history I mean you can do it from the from the dry history books but none of it

00:04:01.960 comes to life and it's a series of events and then something happened and somebody did something and

00:04:07.160 then this battle happened and blah blah blah and you read it all and then you forget it. With this he

00:04:11.800 weaves him into it. So everything that happens in these books actually happened. Yes. Even down to the

00:04:18.980 discussions that took place amongst the officers and the general staff but what McDonald has done is

00:04:25.060 he's woven this character into it and through it so that you basically get to you you basically get

00:04:31.040 to live history and over the full course of the books and and this is the other genius of McDonald's

00:04:36.740 is he manages to find a way to get Flashman from A to B so that he is at every major historical

00:04:44.980 battles that the Victorians fought through some convoluted series of events but you know it is

00:04:51.220 absolutely brilliant history. It is it really is and another thing just to say about uh uh that and the

00:04:57.540 way that it just puts the Flashman character at the center of these historical events is that collectively

00:05:02.920 of course these uh this series is known as the Flashman papers and um McDonald's writing is in such a way

00:05:10.640 that he really grounds it in the Victorian vernacular. It really sounds like it is an actual

00:05:16.480 Victorian person who is telling this story and what's more as well um when this first particular

00:05:23.200 novel came out back in uh 1969 I believe it was you actually had critics and people reviewing it who

00:05:31.420 believed that this was real that some real historical documents have been found by this Harry Padgett Flashman.

00:05:38.100 Yes. And that this was real history. It's all strung together so well I mean you you genuinely could

00:05:42.640 believe it. Yes. And um you know all the great historical characters from Queen Victoria the Duke

00:05:47.880 of Wellington onwards you know he he kind of reads beneath the surface of what was left by history

00:05:53.260 and picks out what would be a believable character for those people in their you know off off script you

00:06:00.440 know when they're you know when they're not being recorded in prosperity how they might have chatted

00:06:04.560 amongst themselves and he gets that tone just right and then by weaving Flashman into it you just you just

00:06:09.800 see inside history brought to life wonderful stuff. You do and you also get um Flashman's very unique

00:06:17.700 and particular view of these people as well where you get his judgments about their character. Yes and

00:06:24.620 he's normally quite small you might well read it as as Flashman is the only sane person in the entire

00:06:31.880 Victorian era. It's an interesting idea. Because he's well aware of how much bloody danger is in you 0.78

00:06:38.260 know but back then you know they they sort of had the view that uh you know they may well be right that

00:06:42.920 um you know one English soldier is worth seven of the uh of the the natives I should say um and um 0.74

00:06:49.120 you know and and they would boldly go marching out firmly believing this and actually do quite

00:06:55.360 well and win a lot battles. Whereas Flashman would look at this and say well look for god's sakes they've

00:06:59.700 got 30,000 cavalry and 50,000 foot and we're going up against that and he wants to be out of the

00:07:04.880 situation as fast as he possibly can. Yes. Uh but invariably he's dragged back into it. Yeah absolutely.

00:07:10.620 So one of the things that I think is most remarkable about Flashman is his origins right. There's very few

00:07:17.280 characters that I've seen that have this origin story of the creation because actually though this

00:07:23.580 first particular novel came out in 1969 it's not the world's first introduction to the Flashman

00:07:30.060 character. So you have a a novel written by Thomas Hughes uh back in 1857 so 112 years before this

00:07:40.160 called uh Tom Brown's School Days. Yes. Which is set at the boarding school for boys in rugby. Yes. Uh

00:07:48.360 in a very esteemed place and there is the Flashman character in this who gets is a bully. He's the bully. 0.92

00:07:56.980 Yes well Tom Brown's Diaries are supposed to be sort of semi-autobiographical so you know it's about

00:08:04.020 this I mean this this this Tom Brown who's obviously based on Tom Hughes. Yes. Uh and um sort of events

00:08:10.380 and it's it's not supposed to be a literal recounting of his school days. It's supposed to be a a variation

00:08:15.460 on that but I mean put it this way if I were to write a book about a uh dissident media channel

00:08:21.820 and there was a um you know there was a uh a little ginger northern kid who kept on getting bullied by the

00:08:28.320 other presenters. I mean try as I might give him a separate name everybody would know I was talking

00:08:32.400 about Harry here. You know it's it's it you know he must have woven it together from something but

00:08:38.060 he's supposed to be this this Flashman character a a fictional bully type chap and um I think Tom

00:08:44.800 Brown recognizes he his error because quite frankly he steals the show and he's the most fun in the book

00:08:52.020 and so he has to sort of get rid of him and say he was expelled for drunkenness. Yes. Now interestingly

00:08:56.900 when George MacDonald wrote this he thought oh that's an interesting fictional character I'm gonna I'm

00:09:01.200 gonna lift him and I'm gonna say let's see what happened to him after he got expelled a military

00:09:05.740 career and great fame and acclaim and all that sort of stuff. It was years later uh that MacDonald

00:09:11.440 found that actually had been a Flashman um at rugby at about that time and um there was a Flashman

00:09:17.640 who became a cavalry officer um in the East India Company as well so so he might have accidentally

00:09:23.700 alighted upon a a real character but yes he's supposed to be fictional. Yes um well I I personally

00:09:30.100 choose to believe that this is all real history. Yes. I I really do or every single novel so actually

00:09:36.160 before we go into the story itself as well there was just a page here that I wanted to read not of

00:09:42.520 the story but of MacDonald talking about uh the feedback and these sort of reviews that this was

00:09:49.660 getting at the time when I find it I'll just edit. When he spent years trying to get this manuscript

00:09:55.840 uh published um yes and and when a publisher finally took it on it went gangbusters this I mean

00:10:02.420 it's oh yeah such enormous fun you can see why. Absolutely he was able to um uh stop being a journalist

00:10:08.600 and dedicate himself to being a full-time writer and of course any scenario that makes you stop being

00:10:14.220 a journalist yes is a very good state of affairs uh but he goes on to uh say here that essentially

00:10:23.120 all the papers at the time were trying to figure out what is Flashman about is it a satire is it a

00:10:29.940 satire on the the imperialist Victorian romantic era or is it actually just unabashedly based

00:10:38.040 and is basically just sticking two fingers up at the lefties right what is Flashman what is the

00:10:43.880 intention behind the the novel and the what MacDonald just says is well I wrote it because I thought it

00:10:51.320 was funny right like it's not ideological I wanted to be amused yes and so I wrote myself a very amusing

00:10:58.900 story and it just so happens that many many other people found it very amusing too. Well you could read

00:11:05.500 what you like into it um yes the great thing about this is that it is it is so um it is so

00:11:12.320 kind of gritty and real and it shows the reality of how life was so for example you know I'm I've read

00:11:18.260 them all but I'm rereading them uh because I knew we were going to do this one I've got up to got up

00:11:22.040 to five so far which is the uh the slave one uh where he where he cheats at cards and needs to sort

00:11:27.820 of lie low for a while so he's he's his father-in-law Morrison packs him off on one of his slave ships to

00:11:32.940 keep him out of the country for a year and and and the way he describes it is you know if if you're

00:11:38.260 an abolitionist um you you could look at it and say isn't this awful but likewise you you can take

00:11:43.460 many other readings so for example he's perfectly plain that it's the African chiefs that are you

00:11:48.800 in charge of the trade and selling them all off same when he when he involves himself in the

00:11:53.540 Americas and he hitches up with a um uh an Indian girl uh feathers not not spots yes um and um and and and

00:12:00.940 he's describing the uh the clashes between the the settlers there and and the Indian tribes

00:12:06.440 and and I mean I could give a dozen examples of where he sort of shows you the realities of the

00:12:12.860 both sides and the reality is is that everyone was being utterly beastly to everybody else everyone's

00:12:17.640 out for every penny that they could get an advantage yes um and and and so you know yeah but yes you

00:12:23.960 can you can take it as um casting uh mold judgment on the Victorians um but equally um it shows them

00:12:31.220 as a sort of civilizational force it does um I mean for example in uh I think it was the fourth book uh

00:12:37.060 he was talking about how they stamped out you know the widow burning um in India I mean he pulls no

00:12:41.700 punches on either sides I mean he portrays the British as incompetent cowards sometimes and and the

00:12:47.060 natives as grasping um barbarians well the Afghans are um certainly shown in all their colors yes in 1.00

00:12:54.620 this particular novel yes uh no absolutely and so I love the way that this uh the novel begins

00:13:00.640 because actually it feels very much like an organic sequel to the original Tom Brown yes um you actually

00:13:08.440 it begins with Flash having this uh being very very drunk yes at rugby and he mixed his drinks yes

00:13:15.420 poor fellow well he says that Tom Brown got that wrong didn't he he says I didn't mix my drinks

00:13:20.340 well someone else mixed my drinks he says I would never mix my drinks he says but I did obviously drink

00:13:26.240 it yeah because you're not going to turn down free booze are you yes so rolled out a little rolled out

00:13:32.660 of a litter on the steps of rugby um delirium trevors absolutely but this entire framing device

00:13:39.920 is absolutely fantastic and I think it's so important as to why we actually enjoy the Flashman

00:13:47.080 character as well because don't get me wrong there is um it can be very very funny to watch a man just

00:13:53.580 traveling around the world being a dick to everyone right that has its merits I can't deny it but it's

00:13:59.560 the fact that it's all um set within this world where actually these are it's all being reflected on by a

00:14:07.100 Flashman who's in his 80s now and he's looking back at his life and he's just giving the pure

00:14:12.460 unadulterated truth he's just telling it as it is because ultimately he's lived his life he's enjoyed

00:14:19.080 all of the um the renown and the prestige that's come with it all and it doesn't really matter what

00:14:25.400 people think of him after he's dead yeah and so you actually have this even though he is uh he does

00:14:32.780 have many many bad qualities and a few good ones as well which we'll definitely talk about

00:14:37.220 but even though he's a majoritively bad person it's his honesty yes that actually is very endearing

00:14:44.060 and that duality of an old man writing about a younger version of himself that also gives you

00:14:48.560 another benefit in that the brashness of youth um is is is remembered but then he will opine as an

00:14:55.800 80 year old who's really seen the world and and understood it he will then often give um you know

00:15:01.540 uh an overview which is far wiser and grander than that so you're blending sort of both of

00:15:07.540 these attitudes the sort of bully youth and the wise old sage are sort of threading together through

00:15:12.680 this history i'll just read from the first part here where we get the introduction to him where he

00:15:18.540 just says i knew better than to mix my drinks even at 17 i mention this not in self-defense but in the

00:15:25.280 interests of strict truth this story will be completely truthful i am breaking the habit of

00:15:31.760 80 years why shouldn't i when a man is as old as i am and knows himself thoroughly for what he was and

00:15:38.460 is he doesn't much care i'm not ashamed you see never was and i have enough on what society would

00:15:45.120 consider the credit side of the ledger a knighthood a victoria cross high rank and some popular fame

00:15:51.340 so i can look at the picture above my desk of a young officer in cardigans his eyes tall masterful

00:15:58.720 and roughly handsome i was in those days even hughes allowed that i was big and strong so he references 0.88

00:16:04.640 back to the original author and says uh and say that it is a portrait of a scoundrel a liar a cheat a thief 0.95

00:16:13.900 a coward and oh yes a toady so you can tell how pleased with himself you know he is about his life 0.97

00:16:24.500 he's um he really relishes this and then his um his tutor um arnold begins to lecture him and moralize 0.98

00:16:34.780 at him and says you know you're still young flashman there's time to turn your life around there's time

00:16:39.420 for you to be a good person it just trails off he says to be honest with you i don't really remember

00:16:43.940 much of what he said you know like he just i mean the offhand i mean the the linguistic flourishes are

00:16:50.460 just perfect sometimes and the offhand comments i mean it is i mean it is quite aside from whatever

00:16:55.660 else it is it's just one of the best written books it is of all time oh i agree yeah the the fact of the

00:17:01.160 matter is that in a way i almost just um randomly put the bookmark in with this you can just put the

00:17:07.340 bookmark in on any page yeah and it'll be a banger it'll just be a wildly entertaining page

00:17:12.960 with uh packed with wit so flashman is he's not from the absolute aristocracy but he does come from

00:17:22.400 no he his grandfather was a um sort of swashbuckling adventurer and made his money in rum and spices

00:17:29.340 and trading and probably piracy and slaving as well yes um that then passed to his father

00:17:35.380 um who was uh a tory member of parliament and the drunkard um who managed to fritter away uh most of

00:17:43.360 the great family fortune but not before um he had married a pantagent uh you know proper old aristocracy 1.00

00:17:50.560 good bloodline uh to produce harry flashman who had one foot in money and one foot in good old

00:17:56.720 respectable titles so he's got a good bearing on getting into victorian society not the highest

00:18:02.280 but you know he he he could he can be received at you know vicky's um palace he is a gentleman yes

00:18:09.620 yes he crosses that threshold yes so those things are available to him yes just just with not quite

00:18:16.140 as much cash as he would like and um over the course of um you know the uh the book the first book

00:18:23.000 his father is quietly uh losing the rest of the family fortune sort of sets him up later on because

00:18:28.920 you may wonder why is such a coward in the army in the first place and it's well because after

00:18:34.020 getting kicked out of rugby you know he thought you know a bit of marching up and down smart uniforms and

00:18:39.200 um chasing after uh maidens in in in full dress drinking in the mess playing cards and he had no

00:18:46.240 conception that he might actually be sent somewhere and after his first adventure you might think well

00:18:50.380 why does he stay in well it's basically because he hasn't got any choice because his father pissed all

00:18:54.540 money away yes yes he doesn't really get on with his father um no no not really no um but you i mean

00:19:03.520 it it it takes a it takes a you know a flashman the senior to deal with flashman the younger right

00:19:09.280 um of course he does bully his mistress in the bedroom uh when the old man isn't looking but um

00:19:14.960 you know that aside um they get on all right yeah yeah it's quite remarkable so you really get um

00:19:20.480 a flavor for his character within about five pages yes gets kicked out of rugby proceeds to go home

00:19:25.900 um argues with his father father leaves cooks his father with his father's latest mistress yes uh and

00:19:33.680 then proceeds to basically get ushered off it's speculated that it's because his father had heard

00:19:40.920 that his his own son had had a bit of fun with his mistress and so he just wants him gone and out

00:19:46.380 the house so he just gives him the money yes necessary to go to horse guards and find a

00:19:52.880 necessary regiment to take him off his house because these are the days when you had to buy

00:19:57.020 your commission yes i mean it is coming a little bit out of the day where you know a doctor or dentist

00:20:03.020 would um basically purchase a commission which is essentially purchasing a pension annuity back in

00:20:09.660 those days so it's coming a little bit out of that i mean this is this is post-waterloo and all that

00:20:13.740 kind of stuff right and it's now in the age where the army is starting to professionalize a bit but

00:20:18.420 nevertheless you still purchase your commission and so he picked horse guards as he's fairly convinced

00:20:24.560 that you know he won't see any action if he joins them no and he's almost right because it originally

00:20:31.340 seems that uh things are actually going to be quite cushy for him because um his first destination

00:20:36.920 is not afghanistan or india or anywhere far it's canterbury now i imagine canterbury in the victorian

00:20:45.120 era to be probably one of the most picturesque cities in all of england uh i've only been once

00:20:50.780 before and that's in this these times in the state that we're in now and it was still quite nice so i

00:20:57.220 can only imagine i i i can believe that canterbury in the 1830s was probably the pinnacle of civilization

00:21:04.020 that our species has ever achieved indeed indeed and so you have him sent to canterbury to be part

00:21:11.740 of the i think it's the 11th hussars yes with lord cardigan yes a a man who has no um temptation to

00:21:21.540 be anywhere near a battle and he he basically focuses his time on making sure that everybody

00:21:26.660 is smartly turned out and all the while the men are just supposed to apparently not find it amusing

00:21:34.300 that he has a speech impediment yes a lot of haw-hawing and yeah that sort of thing it's very funny

00:21:39.780 because it's just the w's where the r should be in the in the text and it's like i don't know if

00:21:45.980 that's historical or if george has just decided to give him that if george mcdonald i'm sure it is

00:21:52.380 because it is unnervingly accurate all these minor details when everything like i say everything

00:21:56.680 that happened in these books is true it's just that this this imaginary character is threaded through

00:22:01.620 the uh the middle of it right to speak about flashman's character as well is that this is a 0.99

00:22:07.560 man who yes right so he's a coward he's a scoundrel he's a thief he's a rapist he's all sorts of 0.86

00:22:13.100 things however he does have qualities and one of his qualities uh that is a very keen one is 1.00

00:22:19.480 so the first thing he's not stupid no he's not stupid at all he's actually quite an intelligent

00:22:24.620 man but he really knows how to read another person's character figure out what makes them tick

00:22:32.300 and basically word his way into getting what he wants with them well he if he perceives you to be of

00:22:39.580 lower social status he's a frightful bully that is true yes however he perceives you to be of use

00:22:44.520 and of higher social status he will toady and charm like the absolute best of them

00:22:49.420 and that's exactly what he does with cardigan and so within the first few weeks of even being there

00:22:55.520 he's already very well liked by most of the people because he is he's young he's handsome there is one

00:23:02.600 particular chap that doesn't get on with him so well he he's well liked by um the sort of well to do

00:23:10.740 rah-rah type yes he's not really that well thought of by the actual practice men of the company those

00:23:16.580 who've seen action because they see him tight toadying up um but yeah but you know as i'm sure you're about

00:23:23.620 to mention he gets himself into a spot of bother over a french mistress yes which again totally

00:23:29.960 understandable entirely understandable but there's this uh particular chap there who is uh i think he's

00:23:36.260 described as like having like french jewish heritage yeah and so he's not quite and flashman just takes

00:23:43.140 his frenchness and just goes oh well i'm obviously going to take the frenchman's wife uh sorry mistress 0.99

00:23:48.680 and um basically manages this within the space of an afternoon he is just an incomparable womanizer

00:23:56.820 and his success rate is not a hundred percent no but probably about 98 um having read all the books i can

00:24:04.580 tell you that he has uh 478 um liaisons with the ladies um and any and he does go through but no he

00:24:13.120 is is big and bluff and charming and handsome so so the ladies do take to him quite well um but that

00:24:19.680 but that again is one of those great mechanisms for moving flashman around between the various events

00:24:25.760 of the books because i mean half the time he's escaping a jealous husband it's woman trouble yes constantly

00:24:30.680 that's moving about yes this is very true and so in this case what happens with the woman trouble 1.00

00:24:36.440 is it eventually leads to a duel uh between him and uh this other officer and this is you get this so

00:24:45.680 much just within this one little duel exactly how flashman operates yeah because he could die here

00:24:52.240 you know in a well when he was very much aware of that and he had no intention of letting that be a

00:24:58.140 possibility no but he still was wise enough to save face in front of everyone else look totally unfazed

00:25:06.060 by it and another thing as well that is a key to his character is the fact that he points out the fact

00:25:12.180 that his face goes flush red whenever he is terrified yes and he's terrified a lot yes but the thing is

00:25:20.300 that people always mistake it for anger yes and so they never actually think he's been cowardly

00:25:25.780 they just think he's mad and furious so when he's there absolutely quivering like beaker yes as he's

00:25:33.020 setting up this duel um red in the face they all think oh my goodness this man demands and he's

00:25:39.300 actually terrified so so he has a sort of jewel cowardice which is quite useful for this so i mean yes he

00:25:46.880 is he is a a coward in that he wants nothing bad to happen to him but he's also definitely afraid of

00:25:53.160 losing social standing losing reputation and that and that in that the situation with the jewel when

00:25:59.440 he gets called out um you know indirectly for for having bullied this french mistress of one of the

00:26:05.140 fellow officers and of course well you know when he when he sees that the um the fellow officer isn't

00:26:09.860 going to make a deal of it he starts of needling him until he gets angry and words are exchanged

00:26:14.960 and at that point he can't stop himself but immediately demanding a jewel because he can't

00:26:21.140 be seen to be losing face he's afraid of that um and then he gets himself into a desperate funk of 0.98

00:26:27.220 course because oh shit i've just i've just demanded a jewel from somebody who could kill me so he 0.91

00:26:31.920 immediately has to come up with some sort of way of getting himself out of it yeah he does and so 0.98

00:26:37.420 that's exactly what he does because he goes to one of his lower subordinates and he basically says

00:26:42.980 how do you like the sound of 10 000 pounds if you're basically willing to rig the duel

00:26:49.420 and stop him from being able to shoot me harm the shot as you're loading them yes and i love the way

00:26:56.980 that it's done because um you have the night before as well and you can see flashman's anxiety

00:27:02.700 just mounting as the night goes on i don't think he even sleeps that night it's not until the the

00:27:09.440 subordinate just gives him the wink to say i've done it that he's finally released of this oh god

00:27:15.600 i'm going to live well as his classic flashman yes he he he he's so fearful he can't sleep overnight

00:27:22.940 however because of that other aspect where he's he's desperately trying to present a sort of brave and

00:27:28.760 cutting and dash figure when they come from in the morning to to knock him up he he he's made sure

00:27:33.840 he's heard um supposedly snoring um loudly and so they exclaim good god he's he's fast asleep hasn't

00:27:41.220 you know he's he's completely unconcerned and he affects this thing which which serves him very well

00:27:46.740 later on by the end of the book of appearing completely unflustered while being completely terrified

00:27:51.920 and it's all topped off by the fact that of course the other chap fails to shoot him

00:27:58.660 and then flashman purposely disposes of his shot just points away shoots and the bullet takes off

00:28:07.020 the top of a bottle yes that was just laying in someone in the other chap's bag and so it looks 0.97

00:28:13.420 but by sheer accident not only like but the fact that actually i'm so precise i could have killed you 0.52

00:28:21.340 if i'd have wanted to and so it makes him look like an absolute chad and and that and that story

00:28:27.220 sort of does the round in in in polite society even gets mentioned in the house of commons where

00:28:31.960 they were discussing you know perhaps we should we should outlaw dueling and uh this case was brought

00:28:37.520 up and said well look you know this this is how gentlemen um act in these situations and they acted

00:28:42.480 very honorably yeah there was a fantastic line somewhere in there if i remember it not quite verbatim

00:28:48.120 where he says something on the line the guy is very angry at him because he's flashman's humiliated

00:28:52.800 him uh to be honest with you and he says you know you should have just shot me sir and uh flashman

00:28:57.980 says something he just comes out with a great one line where he says sir i didn't presume to tell you

00:29:03.000 where you were to shoot so please don't do you know for me and apparently this this particular line

00:29:08.400 got all the way to the duke of wellington yes and he thought it was very amusing yes and so yeah

00:29:13.780 just this status this renown begins to grow if you enjoyed this piece of premium content from the

00:29:19.180 lotus eaters head to our website where you can find more

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - November 29, 2025

PREVIEW： Chronicles #24 ｜ Flashman with Dan Tubb

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