The papers are attributed to Harry Paget Flashman, the bully featured in Thomas Hughes's novel, who becomes a well-known Victorian military hero (in Fraser's fictional England).

The subsequent publishing of these papers, of which Flashman is the first installment, contrasts the public image of a (fictional) hero with his own more scandalous account of his life as an amoral and cowardly bully.

After an affair with a fellow-officer's lover, he is challenged to a duel but wins after promising a large sum of money to the pistol loader to give his opponent a blank load in his gun.

He does not kill his opponent but instead delopes and accidentally shoots the top off a bottle thirty yards away, an action that gives him instant fame and the respect of the Duke of Wellington.

By showing off his language and riding skills in India, Flashman is assigned to the staff of Major General William George Keith Elphinstone, who is to command the garrison at the worst frontier of the British Empire at that time, Afghanistan.

Upon arrival, he is instructed to undertake various diplomatic missions and thereby increases his knowledge of the contemporary Afghan political situation, local culture and language.

Flashman again attempts to flee in midst of the confusion but is captured and tortured by Gul Shah, only to be rescued and then subsequently used as a diplomatic envoy by the duplicitous Afghan leader Akbar Khan.

Despite being captured, tortured and escaping death numerous times, hiding and shirking his duty as much as possible, he comes through it with a hero's reputation; although his triumph is tempered when he realises his wife might have been unfaithful while he was away.

[3] By 1970 the book had sold over 200,000 copies in paperback and its success – notably the sale of the film rights – enabled Fraser to leave journalism and become a full-time writer.

[4][5] Film rights were sold to Bob Booker and George Foster's Cinema Organization company, and initial plans called for a movie to be directed by Richard Lester.

[10] Lester was scouting locations in Spain to stand in for Afghanistan and was about to start casting when there was a change of management at United Artists and the film was cancelled.

It’s a very expensive project, a period film where at one point 13,000 of the British Army have to retreat in January from Kabul into India, being attacked by hordes of Afghans.

[14] In 2015, Variety reported that 20th Century Fox was developing a movie adaptation of the Flashman novels, with Ridley Scott and Peter Chernin producing.