The Reivers
The Story of the Border Reivers
by Alistair Moffat
£4.99
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a most compelling, thought-provoking and entertaining history'
The Herald
This is a history as exciting and dramatic as the Border ballads themselves'
Cumberland News
It is the passion and pride in the land of his birth that shine through in this superb new work'
Southern Reporter
This is a page-turning history, lucidly written, and it is enhanced by a selection of five famous Border ballads. One of the best reads of the year, without doubt'
Scottish Life
About the Book
Only one period in history is immediately, indelibly and uniquely linked to the whole area of the Scottish and English Border country, and that is the time of the Reivers. Whenever anyone mentions 'Reiver', no-one hesitates to add 'Border'. It is an inextricable association, and rightly so. Nowhere else in Britain in the modern era, or indeed in Europe, did civil order break down over such a wide area, or for such a long time. For more than a century the hoof-beats of countless raiding parties drummed over the border. From Dumfriesshire to the high wastes of East Cumbria, from Roxburghshire to Redesdale, from the lonely valley of Liddesdale to the fortress city of Carlisle, swords and spears spoke while the law remained silent. Fierce family loyalty counted for everything while the rules of nationality counted for nothing.The whole range of the Cheviot Hills, its watershed ridges and the river valleys which flowed out of them became the landscape of larceny while Maxwells, Grahams, Fenwicks, Carletons, Armstrongs and Elliots rode hard and often for plunder. These were the Riding Times and in modern European history, they have no parallel.
This book tells the remarkable story of the Reivers and how they made the Borders.
The Author
Alistair Moffat
Alistair Moffat was born in Kelso, Scotland in 1950. He is an award winning Writer, Historian and former Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Director of Programmes at Scottish Television. He is the founder of Borders Book Festival and Co-Chairman of The Great Tapestry Of Scotland.Related
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