Book excerpt: The Speedicut Papers recounts in very frank detail the life, loves, and adventures of Jasper Speedicutcharmer, sexual libertine, reluctant hero, and friend of the self-styled brigadier general Sir Harry Flashman, VC. Comprising a nine-volume series of linked adventures and anecdotes in memoir format, The Speedicut Papers lifts the lid from a veritable cesspit of Victorian and Edwardian upper-class debauchery that makes Downton Abbey look like a vicarage tea party. It is also a unique account of Speedicuts involvement in some of the greatestand also some long-forgottenevents in the British Empire and beyond during the period of 18211915. In Flashmans Secret, the first volume of the saga, Speedicut throws a searchlight onto some very murky corners of the nineteenth century, including the early careers of the notorious courtesan, Lola Montez, and the demon barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd. New insights are also provided into the formation of the IRA, the first Anglo-Afghan War, and the dubious acquisition by the British crown of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. If this were not enough, Flashmans Secret also reveals Nelsons actual last words and the existence of a sinister and murderous secret society at the heart of the British establishment.