McAuslan in the Rough
McAuslan in the Rough is the second collection of short stories by George MacDonald Fraser featuring a young Scottish officer named Dand MacNeill. It is a sequel to The General Danced at Dawn and concerns life in a Highland regiment after the end of World War II. It is slightly more comical in tone than that first collection. Some of the stories are set in North Africa; other in Scotland after the regiment's return to Scotland and the retirement of the old Colonel. Plot summaries Bo Geesty. There has been some kind of military fortification at Fort Yarhuna since time immemorial. It stands at the junction of three trade routes across what once was grassland and now is desert. In turn, the fort has been garrisoned by Alexander's Greeks, Hannibal's Carthaginians, Scipio's Romans, Vandal patrols, proselytizing Arabs of the Caliphate period, Crusaders, Berbers, Mussolini's Italians, Rommel's Afrika Korps, and the 51st Highland Division. And now, on orders from GHQ, it is the first independent command of Lieutenant Dand MacNeill, who has two platoons under him. MacNeill has orders to maintain order in Yarhuna Village (which largely consists of leaving things be), and to attempt to find water in the Fort