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Dave, they are about the later adventures of Harry Flashman (who was a disgusting bully at Rugby school (and toasted Tom Brown before a fire, when not beating fags etc.....). He became an undeserved Victorian hero by virtue of good luck, cowardice, a gift for picking up languages from the 'natives' and being tall, slim and handsome in his various uniforms, and from his ability to make women swoon at his feet. A thoroughly disgraceful character, but well aware of his own failings and not at all bothered by them or the failings of others. He recorded his frank opinions of such characters as Wellington, Victoria, Havelock, Custer, the relief of Mafeking and so on. Very well researched stories, with footnotes filling in the details. You could only appreciate the books (or hate them) by reading one. I think they are hated by many women because of his old-fashioned penchant for treating them as sex objects; in other words, a delight for a modern man (and for a modern woman) to read in secret.