The Complete McAuslan. George MacDonald Fraser

G.M. Fraser gave the world an unforgettable cast of characters in these only thinly disguised tales of his postwar service in the Gordon Highlanders. Not only the now world famous Pte. McAuslan, J., but also the imperturbable Regimental Sergeant Major, the high-strung and creative Pipe Major, the deadly and suave Captain Errol, Fraser himself in the persona of Dand MacNeill, intractable Highland grannies, brother officers, and various cagey, foolish, loveable, and horrifying inhabitants of the British Army of the late 40s and its environs. Fraser had an eye for detail only matched by his ear for dialect and his ability to describe and illumine personality and manner. These stories are classics, in that you don't need to know the time and place intimately to be drawn into them as if into a circle of friends reminiscing of bygone days. First rate stuff!

For those who have read "Quartered Safe Out of Here" by the same author, an autobiographical account of his time in WW2 in Burma, it's obvious that the books contained within "The Complete McAuslan" are a continuation of the author's life loosely disguised as fiction. They're a great and hilarious collection of stories about life in a Highland Regiment of the British Army in the immediate aftermath of WW2. My Dad was in a similar British Army unit just after the war and told a lot of stories that these remind me of every time I read them. Sadly, the author passed away in early 2008 so we won't be getting any more of these or the equally entertaining Flashman stories. As a previous reviwer noted, this is a large tome, but not insurmountably so - great reading for the train, bus or plane. It'll certainly keepyou occupied for a flight across the Pond. Maybe not the Pacific, but you can't have everything....

I too found these books to be outrageously funny and insightful regarding the life of a postwar highland regiment. Just a note to the previous reviewer, George McDonald Fraser in his autobiography "A light on at the Signpost" mentions that he ran into his old company comander from the McAuslan days at a book signing. His commander loved the books and asked GMF why he labled them fiction? GMF said he mumbled something about lawyers and goes on to tell all of us readers that these books are essentially taken from true envents in his post war service. GMF passed away in January 08 from cancer- I for one will miss him.