The Speedicut Papers Book 2 1848 1857

Book 2 of The Speedicut Papers continues the first hand account of the life, loves and adventures of Jasper Speedicut: charmer, sexual libertine and reluctant hero. It is also a unique account of events in the British Empire and beyond, comprising a series of linked adventures and anecdotes which, when taken together, comprise a fascinating insight into many of the half-remembered or wholly-forgotten events of the second half of the 19th century. It is a matter of considerable regret to me that The Speedicut Papers were not available to me when I wrote my History of the English Speaking Peoples. Sir Winston Churchill This book contains the only lucid explanation of the Schleswig-Holstein question ... to which Ive completely forgotten the answer. Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston I was delighted to discover that, like me, Speedicut has committed every sin in the Decalogue. Sir Richard Burton Having read this remarkable narrative I would swim the Hellespont to meet the man who wrote it. George, 6th Baron Byron Speedicuts adventures in Berlin have given me an idea for a book. Bram Stoker

In Book 2 of The Speedicut Papers, readers are taken on a headlong dash through long forgot-ten wars starting with the First Schleswig War of 1848, inadvertently started by Speedicut, and ending with the Anglo-Persian War of 1857, in whose origins he also played a major role. In between, Speedicut has uncomfortably close encounters with a well-known Hungarian Count in Berlin and La Dame aux Camellias in Paris, travels to the United States where he is hunted by Pinkerton agents, nearly wrecks the Great Exhibition, contrives that Lord Cardigan catches the pox, is captured by the Russians at the outset of the Crimean War and, on his re-lease, spends time with the notorious Cockney grande horizon tale, Cora Pearl. ..

Uncivil Wars opens in 1857 and takes the reader through the horrors of the Indian Mutiny to China and the Second Opium War, during which Speedicut is captured and tortured in the notorious Board of Punishments. Back in England, Speedicut remarries and he and his new wife spend their honeymoon in the United States, where they get caught up in the American Civil War along with Scarlett OHara, Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler, all of whose real characters he ruthlessly exposes

The Speedicut Papers recounts in very frank detail the life, loves, and adventures of Jasper Speedicutcharmer, sexual libertine, reluctant hero, and friend of the self-styled brigadier general Sir Harry Flashman, VC. Comprising a nine-volume series of linked adventures and anecdotes in memoir format, The Speedicut Papers lifts the lid from a veritable cesspit of Victorian and Edwardian upper-class debauchery that makes Downton Abbey look like a vicarage tea party. It is also a unique account of Speedicuts involvement in some of the greatestand also some long-forgottenevents in the British Empire and beyond during the period of 18211915. In Flashmans Secret, the first volume of the saga, Speedicut throws a searchlight onto some very murky corners of the nineteenth century, including the early careers of the notorious courtesan, Lola Montez, and the demon barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd. New insights are also provided into the formation of the IRA, the first Anglo-Afghan War, and the dubious acquisition by the British crown of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. If this were not enough, Flashmans Secret also reveals Nelsons actual last words and the existence of a sinister and murderous secret society at the heart of the British establishment.

Book 2 of The Speedicut Memoirs picks up Charles Speedicut’s story from the point in 1918 at which he is about to leave for the Crimea to rescue the Dowager Empress of Russia, a mission which he foresees will be the most dangerous of his life to date. But Fate intervenes and sends him back to the Middle East, where he has a hand in the end of the war in Syria, followed by a series of adventures rescuing members of deposed European royal families that ends, with perfect symmetry, in the Valley of the Kings ... “Speedicut, Lawrence and the Turks: the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable.” Field Marshal Viscount Allenby “I am deeply indebted to Charles Speedicut for giving me the idea for Ninotchka.” Ernst Lubitsch “I should have killed Speedicut when I had the chance.” Marguerite, Princess Ali Fahmy

As the subtitle implies, Book 5 of The Speedicut Papers is largely concerned with Speedicuts unsought role as a part-time courtier to Prince Albert Edward, The Prince of Wales, whilst at the same time he tries to track down the traitor in the British establishment. Along the way he witnesses the battle of Isandlwana, is present at Rorkes Drift and is framed for the death of the Prince Imperial.

Why did General Gordon remain in Khartoum? What really happened at the Battle of Abu Klea? How and why did King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary and Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, actually die? Who was Jack the Ripper? And why was Oscar Wilde provoked into suing Lord Queensberry? For the first time, convincing answers to these and many other historical questions are answered in the memoirs of Colonel Jasper Speedicut. Speaking on behalf of the Faversham family, I can assure you that this book is an appalling travesty of the truth! A E W Mason Judging from this memoir, the British Empire was coloured pink on the map for a very good reason. Alfred Kinsey

In this, the final volume of the memoirs of Jasper Speedicut, the old soldier and courtier is deeplyand often hilariouslyinvolved in the 1900 siege of the Peking legations, the death and funeral of Queen Victoria, the final days of Oscar Wilde, the removal to safety of the personal correspondence of the Dowager Empress of Germany, the sinking of RMS Titanic, the start of the First World War, and the fates of Mata Hari and Edith Cavell. The Speedicut Papers Book 9 (19001915): Boxing Icebergs also solves the mystery of the manacled skeleton found on a building site in Leicestershire, first revealed in Flashmans Secret, and the existence of an illegitimate son to carry on the Speedicut familys adventures.