Octopussy screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser dies aged 82

Bond News - 03-01-08

The novelist George MacDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman adventure stories and screenwriter to the 1983 James Bond film "Octopussy", has died aged 82, his publisher has said.

The popular books saw womanising anti-hero Sir Harry Flashman, fight his way around the British Empire - reports the BBC.

MacDonald Fraser, who was appointed an OBE in 1999, also wrote the screenplay for James Bond film Octopussy.

The Carlisle-born journalist turned author, who lived on the Isle of Man, had fought cancer for several years.

He was married and had three children.

MacDonald Fraser served as a solder in Burma and India during World War II and later rose to be deputy editor of the Glasgow Herald newspaper.

He was still working there when the first Flashman book was published in 1969.

A further 11 followed, the last in 2005.

The inspiration for Sir Harry Flashman came from the 19th century novel, Tom Brown's Schooldays, where the character features as the cowardly bully who torments the hero, Tom.

MacDonald Fraser based his tales on the idea that Flashman's "memoirs" had been unearthed in an old trunk in a Leicestershire auction room.

Despite being a vain, cowardly rogue, as well as a racist and a sexist, the character managed to play a pivotal role in many of the 19th Century's most significant events, always emerging covered in glory.

As well as Octopussy in 1983, MacDonald Fraser wrote other screenplays including The Prince and The Pauper and The Three Musketeers.

Fellow author Kingsley Amis called him "a marvellous reporter and a first-rate historical novelist".

The former news editor on the Herald, 83-year-old Bob Brown, described MacDonald Fraser as "a highly competent journalist".

"He was a smashing bloke, amiable, friendly and first-class company," he said.

Murray Ritchie, 66, was taught journalism by MacDonald Fraser on the Dumfries Standard in the 1960s.

"He was a brilliant journalist. He was a superbly gifted writer, he wrote with such clarity, and was a good leader writer and editor."

He added: "Way back in the '60s he was seen as the journalist of his generation in Scotland."

Thanks to `Tokoloshe` for the alert.

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