Book review - "The General Danced at Dawn" (1971)

George MacDonald Fraser is best known for his Flashman novels but he did another series - a collection of short stories about the adventures of army lieutenant Dand McNeill serving in a Highland Regiment in North Africa after World War Two. More obviously autobiographical than Flashman, but still funny and evocative and worth reading.

This was the first two stories are adequate - "Monsoon Selection Board", where McNeill talks about being selected for officer school, and "Silence in the Ranks", about McNeill meeting his platoon.

Then the stories improve - there's "Play Up, Play Up and Get Tore In" an excellent account of the regiment's football team; there's a memorable character in the dodgy ship's captain and some very exciting football games - Fraser, a former news reporter, was very good at describing matches.

"Wee Wullie" is another strong entry, with the memorable characters of Wullie and the provost marshall; it's a moving tale of bravery.

"The General Danced at Dawn" is great fun - a story I would've liked to have seen filmed (you could film these stories in a Doctor in the House kind of way).

"Night Run to Palestine" feels different to the others because it changes location, being about McNeill's adventures on a night train from Cairo to Palestine - which sounds like a B movie and there are elements of that here, but it is interesting.

"The Whisky and the Music" centers around the legend of a highland regiment. It's not much of a story but is interesting in its depiction of the importance of bag pipes and pipers in highland regiments.

This series is famous for McAuslan but he actually doesn't have much of a role to play until "Guard at the Castle" which is about him doing the guard at Edinburgh Castle (the stories switch location to Scotland, which Fraser must've done). It has a sequel, "McAuslan's Court Martial" where McAuslan almost gets the boot for being dirty; it features a trial, another Fraser area of expertise - he did good trials in Flash for Freedom and Flashman and the Tiger.

It's a good collection of short stories. I wondered how you'd adapt it for a screenplay? Do it like Doctor in the House, I think... string it into some sort of narrative but keep it episodic. Add a romance.

Maybe structure it like this
Sequence 1 - Silence in the Ranks
Sequence 2 - Guard at the Castle - only keep this set in Libya
Sequence 3 - The General Danced at Dawn
Sequence 4 - McAuslan's Court Martial
Sequence 5 - the climactic game in Play Up, Play Up and Get Tore In - I'd make McAuslan and McNeill part of the team