The Sheikh and the Dustbin and Other MacAuslan Stories

McAuslan

by George MacDonald Fraser

Private McAuslan was ‘the biggest walking disaster to hit the Army’. Loosely based on his own experiences in a Scottish regiment, and written with rare humour, a sense of the ludicrous and real affection for soldiering, this is the third volume of George MacDonald Fraser’s McAuslan trilogy.Private McAuslan’s admirers already know him as court-martial defendant, ghost-catcher, star-crossed lover and golf caddie extraordinary; in this third and final volume of army memoirs he appears as the most unlikely of batmen to his long-suffering protector and persecutor, Lieutenant Dand MacNeill; as guardroom philosopher and adviser to the leader of the Riff Rebellion; and even as Lance Corporal McAuslan, the Mad Tyrant of Three Section! Whether map-reading his erratic way through the Sahara by night or confronting Arab rioters, McAuslan's talent for catastrophe is as sure as ever.Private McAuslan, J., The Dirtiest Soldier in the World (alias the Tartan Caliban) first demonstrated his unfitness for the service in THE GENERAL DANCED AT DAWN . He continued his disorderly advance, losing, soiling or destroying his equipment, through the pages of McAUSLAN IN THE ROUGH . Finally, THE SHEIKH AND THE DUSTBIN pursues the career of the great incompetent as he bauchles (see Glossary) across North Africa and Scotland, swinging his right arm in time with his right leg and tripping over his untied laces.Based on MacDonald Fraser’s own experiences in the Border Regiment and the Gordon Highlanders, which took him to India, Africa and the Middle East, these stories demonstrate the celebrated author of the swashbuckling FLASHMAN series at his hilarious best.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Military Fiction, Short Stories, War

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

George MacDonald Fraser is best known for his Flashman series of historical novels, purportedly written by Harry Flashman, a fictional coward and bully originally created by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days. The novels are presented as "packets" of memoirs written by the nonagenarian Flashman, who looks back on his days as a hero of the British Army during the 19th century. The series begins with Flashman, and is notable for the accuracy of the historical settings and praise from critics. P.G. Wodehouse said of Flashman, “If ever there was a time when I felt that ‘watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet’ stuff, it was when I read the first Flashman.”

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of several volumes of stories written by GMF based on his own experiences in the army just after WWII. Ranging from the absurd to the touching. You can feel the nostalgia on every page. Rated PG. 3/5

[Mike Wigal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Fraser! We had a McAuslan in my unit in the 82nd Airborne Division. We were a spit and polish outfit, but our McAuslan never achieved higher than rumpled. Every unit in every army in the history of the world had characters like those described by Fraser. But no one writes of them better.

[Viva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was introduced to George MacDonald Fraser by the Flashman books and because GMF was close to CS Forester on library shelves.

This book is the last of 3 in the series. I think this last book was written well after the other 2 and was only written due to the popularity of the others. The series is a fictional biographical sketch of Dand MacNeill of a Highland Regiment just after WW2. Finally at the end of this book, it acknowledges that the regiment is the Gordons and the colonel in the stories is Lt. Col Reggie Lees.

The books consists of short stories (not strictly chronological) of every day military life, whether on home territory or overseas. The books are comedic, light hearted but also as serious as military tradition and soldering can be.

I own all the books and I've read this series many times. They are fun to read yet you also get a sense of the great British and Highland military tradition. As the last book, it meandered quite a bit more than the first two and it not as tightly written, but as a fan of the series I'll take anything I can get. RIP to all the great characters in the book and the author.

[ValeriZentsov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes of Flashman, but less 'funny' and more fun. Good-natured and sympathetic humour, with a subtle lesson dropped in here and there. Good value.

[Olly Colluphid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torn on this one. Maybe 3.5.

This is not as good as the first two McAuslan books. The redeeming feature to me was the sentimental last chapter, but even so it struggled in comparison.

Enjoyable but missable.

[Peter Staadecker · Rating 5 out of 5]

While his Flashman books are fun, the MacDonald Fraser's McAuslan stories are pure gold. The most natural and gifted story teller I can think of.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last McAuslan collection. Ending with an afterword in which Fraser recounts how he met up with his old Colonel at a book signing and when they had a drink after, the Colonel said that the notice that the regiment never existed, and all the characters were fictitious -- well, that was rot. Possibly libelous rot. Was he a fiction?

And so we have some more adventures. Like the narrator's problems with servants -- greatly complicated by the way an officer had to have a batman. The time they were subduing civil unrest in Africa, and McAuslan astounded the narrator: on being told that the wogs couldn't govern themselves, with the relative condition of the European and native architecture being pointed out in evidence, McAuslan actually produced the Pyramids as counter-evidence. The bet that involved his men being sent out to make their way by map to a bridge -- and put out a lamp on it as an additional challenge.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable conclusion to the stories of GMF's army days. The afterword or Extraduction and dedication are touching. To be taken with a good single malt (or a touch of the 'creature') and repeated as often as necessary.

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not as "readable" as the Flashman series.

[ValeriZentsov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes of Flashman, but less 'funny' and more fun. Good-natured and sympathetic humour, with a subtle lesson dropped in here and there. Good value.