When George MacDonald Fraser died in February 2008, he left behind a huge, Flashman-shaped hole as enthusiasts found themselves bereft of their favourite “scoundrel, liar, cheat, thief, coward, and toady”. A vacancy for an unapologetic anti-hero has existed ever since.

One creator of likely replacements, Julian Rathbone, ruled himself out of the running by dying two weeks after Fraser. As for the rest, many historically-based novels are hamstrung by being too much in thrall to an adolescent love of the details of war. They may sometimes be well researched and even on occasion well written, but at heart these books are the grown-up cousins of all the useless, gung ho gulf war porn doing the rounds at the moment.

Where the Flashman books scored so highly was to allow those with a sense of embarrassment at their enthusiasm for all things historical, adventurous and military to have their historical, military adventure flavoured cake and eat it without guilt.  This is because the Flashman novels while tremendous, rambunctious fun are also fantastically well-researched picaresque adventures,  grand tours of the greatest hits of Victorian military history, written with wit, erudition and a healthy dose of well-honed cynicism and political astuteness. All of which is plenty to inoculate cognoscenti when looked at askance by readers of “serious” books.

Coward On The Beach by James Delingpole is the latest attempt to fill Fraser’s boots. It is a WW2 novel pitched roughly at the intersection of Flashman and a Commando comic. As such it is a rip-roaring, in parts surprisingly moving, boys own adventure and an enjoyable if slightly guilty pleasure. Where Harry Flashman is a coward who everyone thinks a hero, Dick Coward is a hero who everyone thinks a coward. They are both picaresque adventurers, both likely to find themselves knee deep in trouble, in the bed of the nearest “filly”,or at the heart of momentous events in world history. Sometimes as a close spectator but on other ocassions as an unwilling participant.

Coward On The Beach self-consciously lifts its story of a man proving himself during the Normandy landings directly from a Commando comic, which featured gritty tales of derring do beloved of boys in the 1970s. This is an attempt to create an adult novelisation of an adolescent story, which for the most part works surprisingly well.  The setting among the conscript British commandoes, is less a corrective against the Spielberg view of D-Day, and more a modest, pasted together with glue and ingenuity, British version. Although there is none of the overly serious mawkishness of Saving Private Ryan, Coward On The Beach is still at times sentimental, but in an understated British way. Although both share a solid belief in the essential heroism and sacrifice of the stoic, determined amateur soldiers.

The details are well-researched to the point of geekdom by Delingpole, but Coward On The Beach is saved by injections of Flashman-esque self-preservation mistaken for heroism and farce. Such a chaotic mix of the knowing and the naïve brings the landings to life in a way a simple recreation would not. This is D-Day as imagined by David Nobbs.

In the end, as in Flashman, there is a surprising amount of tenderness and for those not averse to shedding a tear at selfless sacrifice these moments may bring a lump or two to the throat. (My own welling up list includes: Beau Geste, Zulu and Two Little Boys – I know what I’m talking about) For others it may be an overly reverential and adolescent portrayal of pointless slaughter.

Coward On The Beach may not be Evelyn Waugh’s Sword Of Honour trilogy and truth be told it isn’t quite enough to fill the Flashman void, but it is nonetheless solidly entertaining, touching and funny and as such Coward On The Beach will do for the while. While there is no point pretending this will appeal to anyone who doesn’t enjoy the reference points of Flashman, Aubrey, Commando, Anthony Beevor and stoic war films, some men of a certain age who miss their 1:72nd scale soldiers, but still consider themselves adults will enjoy Coward On The Beach as the entertaining diversion it is.

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