Flashman and the Dragon
George Macdonald Fraser
HarperCollins UK
<p>1860: As China seethes through the bloodiest civil war in history, and the British and French armies hack their way to the heart of the Forbidden City, Flashman finds his services much in demand. There’s the vicar’s wife, desperate to sell her cargo of opium; the Amazonian bandit queen who, having mislaid five husbands, is casting about for a sixth; Lord Elgin in need of an intelligence chief for a perilous mission to Peking; and the Emperor’s ravishing concubine who would have the hairy barbarian shaved and perfumes and delivered to her pavilion...</p>