# Flashman and Fagging **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2005, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flashman-and-fagging/305060 "2005-05-23T07:45:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flashman-and-fagging/305060/1 "2005-05-23T07:45:22Z")
I’ve just finished the first of the Flashman series of books by George MacDonald Fraser [cite](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/L9ALHUG8ZXNW/102-0357022-4713761) I am puzzled y some of the old english terms used in the books though, particlularly “fagging”, which does not seem to be a homophobic term, but is definitely used in a negative context. Anybody got any ideas what it means in the 1840’s? By the way, although the language used in the rest of the books is very un PC I would heartily recommend them to anyone. They are very funny and would make an excellent series of films or mini series. Please read them and let me know what you think. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flashman-and-fagging/305060/2 "2005-05-23T09:38:52Z")
Now _there’s_ a coincidence: just got an e-mail from the library telling me my reserve copy of **Flashman On The March** is in: Star Wars? Pah! This is what _I’ve_ been hanging out for. “Fagging” was an English public school tradition where younger boys {the “fags”}would act as unpaid servants who performed menial chores for their seniors: as far as I know it didn’t carry any connotations of homosexuality. It wasn’t confined to the 19th century; it was still practised in the 20th, and for all I know may still be, at least in the older schools. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flashman-and-fagging/305060/3 "2005-05-23T10:33:09Z")
I should have linked to a Flashman thread I started a while back: > **[The Official Flashman {and George MacDonald Fraser} Thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=284302)** > > Any Flashman or Fraser fans out there? I think the Flashman series is probably one of the greatest pieces of historical fiction ever written, and certainly the most entertaining. My first edition of the original novel has pride of place on my crowded... There _was_ a movie of **Royal Flash** , but sadly it wasn’t very good, partly because it played too much for laughs, but mostly because it was miscast: Malcolm McDowell gives good villain, but he ain’t Flashy. I always saw Timothy Dalton playing him, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flashman-and-fagging/305060/4 "2005-05-23T10:37:33Z")
What’s wrong with our damned links today? > **[The Official Flashman {and George MacDonald Fraser} Thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=284302)** > > Any Flashman or Fraser fans out there? I think the Flashman series is probably one of the greatest pieces of historical fiction ever written, and certainly the most entertaining. My first edition of the original novel has pride of place on my crowded... ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flashman-and-fagging/305060/5 "2005-05-23T11:45:02Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > What’s wrong with our damned links today? > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=284302](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=284302) Thanks for the link and the reply very informative. I have just started to read Royal Flash and hope to work my way through the rest of the books in due course. At present I can’t actually think of an actor who could carry off the character in the early books on film as he is only 19 at the time of Flashman. I didn’t realise that there was a Flashman thread (I should have searched) and in future I will confine my Flashman questions to there. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flashman-and-fagging/305060/6 "2005-05-23T11:45:48Z")
In which case, I’ll close this one… having fixed the erring link.