When Flashman, the most decorated poltroon of the Victorian age, accepted an invitation from his old enemy, Tom Brown of Rugby, to join in a friendly cricket match, he little knew that he was letting himself in for the most desperate game of his scandalous career - a deadly struggle that would see him scampering from the hallowed wicket of Lord's to the jungle lairs of Borneo pirates, from a Newgate hanging to the torture-pits of Madagascar, from Chinatown dens to slavery in the palace of a mad black queen. If he had known what lay ahead, Flashman would never have taken up cricket seriously.