Life on the Borders

[ellenkushner]

Has anyone else read George MacDonald Fraser's novel The Candlemass Road?

What an amazing book.

Found it in a used bookstore in Oxford last fall, mistakenly shelved under Children's (oh, my!). 

(Yes, I've read his The Steel Bonnets.  And Flashman, natch.  And all of Dunnett -- this is a pretty different side of that coin, I can tell you!  Fraser also wrote the screenplay for Richard Lester's Three Musketeers, a huge influence on me [not to mention Octopussy. which was not].  His ear for language is incredible.)

Comments

[bram452.livejournal.com]

First I've heard of it, he said wandering off to get a copy...

[rozk.livejournal.com]

It's a terrific book - he is a very good influence on a lot of writers. (Many of whom, of course, he would have loathed given that he was a rebarbatively reactionary curmudgeon - but I love the books nonetheless.)

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

You know, I think I can tell that, especially from Candlemass. It probably made him a somewhat trying dinner companion. But the rebartative curmudgeonliness, anyway, made for great writing.

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

Three cheers for the Lester Musketeers! It is most excellent silly swashbuckling. I love the fight in the nuns' courtyard with the laundry.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

The Pyrates and the "McAuslan" stories are worth checking out as well.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I have certainly read it. Have you come across Mr American? I think you'd like it.

[themaskmaker.livejournal.com]

I'm adding it to my list right now! I read his Pyrates and adored it.

[winterbadger]

Yes! It's an excellent story, IMO.

I'd second the suggestion of the McAuslan stories (three books of fictionalised memoirs) and add Quartered Safe Out Here (real memoir) about his wartime and postwar service. He's a wonderful story teller. The BBC broadcast tape of him reading QSOH ?last year?; it was neat to hear him reading it himself. Light's on at Signpost (later life memoir) is good for the bits about his work as a screenwriter (the story about Oliver Reed swimming the ?Tiber? is great). The bits where he bloviates about the ills of the modern world...I just skip those. Pyrates--good; Reivers--over the top unfunny IMO. Mr American--good stuff; Black Ajax--have but have not yet read.