The Light’s On At Signpost: Memoirs of the Movies, Among Other Matters

If you are a fan of this writer, you will enjoy this book.

This book is a collection of reminisences about writing scripts for the film industry, interspersed with magnificent rants against the perceived deterioration of this country. It is not necessary to agree with Fraser's point of view to appreciate the force of his arguments and his invective directed mainly against politicians and the apathy with which their decisions are received. This is the real viewpoint of a genuine Grumpy Old Man, and anybody of the same disposition will instantly recognise another of their kind. Very entertaining throughout.

GMF was a scholar of all things historical and lived through enough to have well reasoned opinions. His thoughts on England at time of this books publishing sound like it could have been written about America right now. This book articulates much of what many of us feel, there are a great many interesting anecdotes from behind the scenes of films GMF worked on as well. Should be a must read for students who will never get a proper civics class in today's classrooms.

The book is in three interwoven threads, Fraser's screenwriting experiences, 'interlude's, and 'angry old man', a series of essays about what's wrong with the world. Much has been made of one of the latter, a short rant by an old soldier opposed to Britain's involvement in the 'Fourth Afghan War,' but these essays cover a range of topics, and there is plenty of scorn to go around. The book should be uniformly interesting for fans of Fraser, but not strongly recommended for others. For me, the revelation that he is not done with Flashman was worth the price of admission.

A fine round off to a stellar career as a cogent observer of the human condition. Old school values, an unbiased commentator, and one who has "seen the elephant", he will be sadly missed in this age of braying intellectual lightweights. The passing of a lovely mind.