George Macdonald Fraser is famous for his Flashman series, the fictional adventures of Tom Brown's bullying nemesis as he gets inadvertently involved in pretty much every notable incident in 19th century history. I'm a huge fan of these stories; they are historically accurate - I've learned a lot from from reading them - and very funny.
His best book though, in my eyes, is set in 1810, and Flashman doesn't get a look in - though his father does. It's the true story of a black ex - slave called Tom Molyneux, who made his way to these shores with the intention of fighting Tom Cribb, champion of England. Which meant the world, back then.
Boxing - bare knuckles in those days - was as big a national obsession as football is now. Though illegal, it was followed be everyone, from the King on down. Prize fights would be organised in secret, and thousands of spectators would swoop on some lonely bit of countryside, preferably where several counties met, to facilitate escape should the law arrive.
After battering a couple of lesser pugs in fine style, Molyneux eventually had his fight with Cribb. It was a close run thing, with many thinking, then and now, that Molyneux was gypped out of the title by sharp practice and biased refereeing. Nobody wanted a foreigner to lift the crown, let alone a black one. There was a rematch, but by then Molyneux's penchant for drinking and womanising had caught up with him and he was roundly thrashed. He died of liver failure eight years later in Galway.
What I love about this book is the astonishingly vivid description of Georgian London in its boozy, violent heydey. So much more fun than the grim grey puritanical hell the victorians made. Sometimes a single novel can spark off a lifetime's fascination with an
area or a historical period. A book called 'The Kings of Vain Intent',
abouth the third crusade, got me obsessed with the crusades and the
history of the eastern mediterranean. And this is the book that sparked
my passion for the georgian era.
There's a local connection too. Lord Alvanley, one of the Prince Regent's sporting cronies, was sort of a local lad. He was one of the Arden family, who owned Arden Hall in Bredbury and Underbank Hall - now a Natwest bank - in Stockport. Trying to keep up with Prinny's spending meant that he had to sell the family estate pretty much as soon as he inherited it, though.
This is a painting of the Fives Court, where the sporting set gathered. Molyneux is the black guy stripped to the waist in the centre.
... the ageing punk rock idol. Somebody younger might have thought of this guy...
..Charlie Sheen's saner alter ego from 'Two and a half men'.
Some of these buildings only date from the 1500's. Timber was cheaper than stone, so these primitive structures were thrown up long after there were more durable alternatives. And yet they age very well. The timbers warp and sag, but the buildings still stand.
The fort's guns weren't trained on the harbour. The worry was that the sneaky French wouuld land further down the coast and attack the anchorage from the landward side. So the forts effectively defend Portsmouth from the rest of England. Of course by the time they were finished, at stupendous cost, the threat had vanished - courtesy of the Germans, ironically, after their victory in the Franco - Prussian war. So they became known as 'Palmerston's follies'. Defence procurement foul - ups aren't just a modern phenomenon.
