[3] Fraser was educated at Carlisle Grammar School and Glasgow Academy;[4] he later described himself as a poor student due to "sheer laziness".

[5] In 1943, during World War II, Fraser enlisted in the Border Regiment and served in the Burma campaign, as recounted in his memoir Quartered Safe Out Here (1993).

After completing his Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) course, Fraser was granted a commission into the Gordon Highlanders.

Through his father he got a job as a trainee reporter on the Carlisle Journal and married another journalist, Kathleen Hetherington.

Starting in 1953, Fraser worked for many years as a journalist at the Glasgow Herald newspaper,[6] where he was deputy editor from 1964 until 1969.

In 1966, Fraser got the idea to turn Flashman, a fictional coward and bully originally created by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days (1857), into a "hero", and he wrote a novel around the character's exploits.

[11] Following Flashman at the Charge (1973), Fraser wrote the screenplay for the movie Royal Flash (1975), also directed by Richard Lester.

He did some uncredited work on the film Ashanti and wrote an unused script for Tai Pan to star Steve McQueen.

[14] Following Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1990), Fraser wrote a version of The Lone Ranger for John Landis which ended up not being filmed.

The Light's on at Signpost (2002) was a second volume of memoirs, focusing on Fraser's adventures in Hollywood and his criticisms of modern-day Britain.

Fraser was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours for services to literature.

[16] A traditionalist, he was an Honorary Member of the British Weights and Measures Association, which opposes compulsory conversion to the metric system.

[26][27][28] Fraser was also a staunch critic of political correctness and enlarged upon his views on this matter (and others) on the BBC radio show, "Desert Island Discs.