George MacDonald Fraser · 1969 · survival

Expelled from Rugby and packed off to the army, the poltroon Harry Flashman is posted to India and thence to Afghanistan, where he blunders through the disastrous First Afghan War, survives the annihilating retreat from Kabul, and emerges from the siege of Jalalabad a hero on the strength of pure cowardice and luck.

1. 1
   London

   Where the disgraced Flashman buys a commission and is shipped out to India.

2. 2
   Bombay

   His landfall in British India, from which he is posted north to the army gathering for Afghanistan.

3. 3
   Kabul

   The Afghan capital under precarious British occupation, from which the army begins its doomed winter withdrawal.

4. 4
   Jalalabad

   The besieged garrison Flashman reaches half-dead through the massacre at Gandamak, to be feted as a hero of the retreat.