Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54889 in Books
• Published on: 1989-03-09
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Customer Reviews

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.

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.

Nutters
Man! what a book! They're all stark raving bonkers. Being an englishman you hear these strange tales of the borders, about Scottish thugs stealing, looting, killing, and a-raping the poor, humble, and hard working English (while being incredibly drunk). Well that's the stereotype and... to an extent, according to this book it's true! But what this book also adds is the total and utter ambiguity of both sides of the border. It is like someone has stuck a huge great mirror on the border. So much for the wee oppressed english peasants and so much for country loyalties. This gives a more realistic view beyond the english ideals of the south and the romanticsm of the Border Ballads, (and shows what a bunch of nutters the Borderers where). This book is fascinating and it is easily accessible. The language flows and doesn't get bogged down in academic twaddle. It sifts through all the difficult points and re-inforces that life is not black and white. Well I think so anyway. It's a good interesting book