"Fenwick Travers and the Years of Empire",
"Fenwick Travers and the Forbidden Kingdom", and
"Fenwick Travers and the Panama Canal",
by Raymond M. Saunders.
Published by Lyford Books.

There are a great many similarities between Fenwick Travers and our old friend, Harry Flashman. The back cover of the first Fenwick Traver's book describes Fenwick Travers as: "...a cheating, drunken, sycophantic libertine, a charlatan, an adulterous, cowardly, gluttonous blackguard, a bounder, a dastardly, caddish, philandering mountebank, a poltroon, a besotted, lecherous, scheming toady, a sybaritic rapscallion, a rakehell, and an All-American Hero!". Except for the last part, it sounds like a description of Flashy. In fact, one wonders if there might be a family connection?

The Fenwick stories are supposedly based on a Fenwick's memoirs (sounds familiar). Fenwick is a soldier, a good horseman, and very successful with the Ladies. Fenwick is a bastard (literally). He describes his father as an ex-soldier (an officer) who met and seduced his mother in 1874. We know that

Flashy was in the United States in 1875. Is it possible that he was there a year earlier? In any event, the stories recount Traver's adventures in the American army. Along the way, he meets great figures in American history. In the first book, "Fenwick Travers and the Years of Empire", Fenwick takes part in the Spanish-American War in Cuba. Naturally, there is a pretty senorita involved.

After his escapades in Cuba, he heads to China, just in time to take part in the Boxer Rebellion. Unlike his English counterpart, he is not in the Peking Legation. Instead, he takes part in the relief expedition under Admiral Sir Edward Seymour.

In "Fenwick Travers and the Forbidden Kingdom", Travers continues his adventures in the Philippines. In "Fenwick Travers and the Panama Canal", he helps encourage a bunch of Panamanians to rebel against Colombia, resulting in the construction of one of the world's largest ditches.

There are a few differences between Travers and Flashman. Travers, being an American, lack's Flashman's ability to learn foreign languages. Regrettably, Mr. Saunders does not include the historical footnotes for which George MacDonald Fraser is so well-known for. However, the Traver's books are all around good fun and I recommend them highly.

These books were available from the Scholar's Bookshelf books@scholarsbookshelf.com A search of Amazon.com might also turn up something.