The Sheikh and the Dustbin (The McAuslan Stories, Book 3)

(Paperback)

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Private McAuslan was the biggest walking disaster to hit the Army. Loosely based on his own experiences in a Scottish regiment, and written with rare humour, a sense of the ludicrous and real affection for soldiering, this is the third volume of George MacDonald Frasers McAuslan trilogy.
Private McAuslans admirers already know him as court-martial defendant, ghost-catcher, star-crossed lover and golf caddie extraordinary; in this third and final volume of army memoirs he appears as the most unlikely of batmen to his long-suffering protector and persecutor, Lieutenant Dand MacNeill; as guardroom philosopher and adviser to the leader of the Riff Rebellion; and even as Lance Corporal McAuslan, the Mad Tyrant of Three Section! Whether map-reading his erratic way through the Sahara by night or confronting Arab rioters, McAuslan's talent for catastrophe is as sure as ever.

Private McAuslan, J., The Dirtiest Soldier in the World (alias the Tartan Caliban) first demonstrated his unfitness for the service in THE GENERAL DANCED AT DAWN. He continued his disorderly advance, losing, soiling or destroying his equipment, through the pages of McAUSLAN IN THE ROUGH. Finally, THE SHEIKH AND THE DUSTBIN pursues the career of the great incompetent as he bauchles (see Glossary) across North Africa and Scotland, swinging his right arm in time with his right leg and tripping over his untied laces.

Based on MacDonald Frasers own experiences in the Border Regiment and the Gordon Highlanders, which took him to India, Africa and the Middle East, these stories demonstrate the celebrated author of the swashbuckling FLASHMAN series at his hilarious best.

Reviews

Thanks to Frasers passion for history, his rare gift for rattling narrative and his infectious delight in robust, rollicking language, we can rejoice in a work of genius worthy of being ranked with P.G. Wodehouse there can be no higher accoladeDaily Telegraph

Written with the kind of unaffected vigour which has characterised the greatest British humorists, these stories do for the Scots what Flann OBrien did for the Irish and P.G. Wodehouse for the EnglishDaily Mail

The third McAuslan volume should certainly be among the first books you pack this or any other holiday seasonThe Times

One takes leave of these characters with real and grateful regretSunday Times

Its a while since I enjoyed a book so much, and once Id finished it, I felt like starting it all over againGlasgow Evening Times

Its great fun and rings true: a Highland Fling of a bookEric Linklater, author of The Wind on the Moon

The greatest book about soldiers since Ian Hay wrote The First Hundred Thousand MacDonald Fraser is magnificentEric Hiscock, author of Around the World in Wanderer III

As well as providing a fine assortment of treats, George MacDonald Fraser is a marvellous reporter and a first-rate historical novelistKingsley Amis, author of Lucky Jim

Author Bio

The author of the famous Flashman Papers and the Private McAuslan stories, George MacDonald Fraser has worked on newspapers in Britain and Canada. In addition to his novels he has also written numerous films, most notably The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and the James Bond film, Octopussy.