Halfway through Flashman on the March, our hero is faced with a tricky decision. He is clinging to a branch, hanging on for dear life above the roar of the Blue Nile. If he lets go, he will go over the Great Silver Smoke, the most dangerous waterfall in Abyssinia.

Flashman just about has the strength to hang on, but there is another problem. Clutching his leg is Uliba-Wark, beautiful pretender to the throne of Abyssinia and the woman who has guided him safely through the horrors of the surrounding country. This being a Flashman novel, she is his lover too.

“I was losing my hold. The intolerable weight was dragging me loose, and in another moment both of us would be swept away into that thunderous white death in the mist,” he writes. “There was only one thing to do.”

And he does it.

It might spoil readers’ enjoyment to know precisely what he does (although regulars familiar with Flashman at the Charge will have a pretty good idea) but suffice to say it is not the sort of thing generally associated with the great heroes of the Victorian era.

But then this is no ordinary Victorian hero. It is the great triumph of George MacDonald Fraser’s wonderful series that Flashman on the March, the 12th “packet” of the adventures of Sir Harry Flashman, VC, is as fresh as the first.

Thirty-five years have passed since Fraser first revived Flashman from the pages of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, but the bully of Rugby School is still capable of appalling the modern reader with his self-serving ways. Flashman may respect and sometimes admire the values of the Victorians, he just does not uphold them himself. And if he is undeserving of the honours and esteem heaped upon him by his contemporaries, his account of his adventures illuminates their extraordinary age.

His latest escapade takes him to new territory, when by chance he finds himself entangled in General Robert Napier’s 1868 march into deepest Abyssinia to rescue a small group of Britons held by the lunatic King Theodore.

For those used to finding Flashman at the heart of great events like the Charge of the Light Brigade or the Indian Mutiny, this may seem an obscure episode, but Bob the Bughunter’s long march was real and, as usual, Flashman’s exploits are woven skilfully into the cloth of history.

Armed only with his good looks, a facility for languages and a complete lack of conscience, our reluctant hero faces the familiar array of deadly perils and even deadlier women with fortitude. But the real events of the rescue attempt are just as fascinating as Flashman’s escapades, and the denouement — when Napier finally traps his quarry in Magdala, is thrilling, all the more so for being seen with Flashman’s (and Fraser's) military expertise.

The past decade has been a disappointing one for dedicated followers of Flashman. There have been only two books — and one of those a collection of short stories — when they used to come almost annually. And, recently, Flashman even seemed to be losing his edge, becoming almost honourable as the later episodes were presented.

All that is put right in Flashman on the March. He is back to his worst and his best. This is the most enjoyable instalment in the series since Flashman and the Redskins (which appeared in 1983).

The books still come garlanded with the praise of late literary giants such as P. G. Wodehouse and Kingsley Amis, but it is harder than ever to disagree with the assessment of Auberon Waugh: “Mr Fraser is twenty times better than Ian Fleming.”

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