George MacDonald Fraser

2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008

I must take belated notice of the passing of George MacDonald Fraser, OBE. Author of the Flashman series of comic historical novels, he had a deft hand explaining the underpinnings of the British Empire of the 19th century. His protagonist, Harry Flashman (the bully of Tom Brown's Schooldays, all grown up) turns up everywhere, whether charging the battery at Balaclava or doing brown a young Otto von Bismarck.

The footnotes alone are worth an upper level course in European History.

The Economist has the obituary . Christopher Hitchens weighs in, as well.