What a genuinely horrible protagonist this book has! The titular Flashman, who was apparently a bully in Tom Brown's Schooldays (which I have not read) has been repurposed by Fraser into the anti-hero of a series of historical novels. This is the first.

There's really nothing redeemable about him. Flashman is a violent, cowardly bully, a rapist, a liar, a hopeless, selfish hypocrite. What saves it is that he knows what an awful person he is, and Fraser knows it too. An unlikeable protagonist can sink a story for me, but almost invariably when they do it's because the author either doesn't realise how unlikeable they are, or makes excuses for them. But the narrative here doesn't do that, precisely because the purpose of that narrative is satire. Flashman, clearly unsuitable for army life, somehow comes up trumps in a story that skewers every possible puffed-up ideal of military life, focusing as it does on the British Army's retreat from Kabul (and subsequent massacre) in 1842. Flashman is made as horrible as he is to really emphasise the rotten, superficial society that supports him - one that privileges absolute incompetence over decency and aptitude. And all credit to the author, I was simultaneously disgusted and entertained, because there's a streak of very bitter humour woven all through this that shows just how cuttingly observant Fraser is being.