|
The Steel Bonnets: Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
|
| List Price: | £12.99 |
| Price: | £8.57 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery on orders over £5. Details |
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk
45 new or used available from £1.95
Average customer review:
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #51122 in Books
- Published on: 1989-03-09
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 428 pages
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
The author of the famous 'Flashman Papers' and the 'Private McAuslan' stories, George MacDonald Fraser has worked on newspapers in Britain and Canada. In addition to his novels he has also written numeous films, most notably 'The Three Musketeers', 'The Four Musketeers', and the James Bond film, 'Octopussy'. George Macdonald Fraser died in January 2008 at the age of 82.
Customer Reviews
An excellent account of the Border Reivers and their times.
This book is highly entertaining. George MacDonald Fraser successfully relates the life and times of the Border Reivers in a way which had me laughing one minute and horrified the next. One could make a comparison between the Borders of Scotland and England and the American Wild West or indeed the Sicilian Mafia. Reading this book has really opened my eyes to a phenomenon of the past which is still present at many frontiers all around the world.
gripping
I'm biased about this book because I'm from the borders and the Graham family, which I belong to, were one of the families most involved in the dirty deals and goings on in the area. This book shows what life was like on the borders between England and Scotland, and informs us that blackmail and greenmail and bereave were words that sprang out of the slaughter and disorder. The wrongdoers can also be seen as victims, driven to desperation through the constant warring of the rival kingdoms and stuck in the middle. Yhe trouble is that the theiving and deception that the locals resorted to in times of war became a habit that was difficult to break.
Wild Borders Cowboys
If you have read any of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman books, you'll know that he can spin a brilliant yarn. That magic touch is more than apparent here. The Steel Bonnets reads like a fast-paced adventure novel, revealing the border lands between England and Scotland in the sixteenth century as a British Wild West, but the facts and analysis come thick and fast and never cease to fascinate. Just brilliant.
