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The Reivers

The Story of the Border Reivers

Alistair Moffat author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Birlinn General

Published:6th Mar '17

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The Reivers cover

From the early fourteenth century to the end of the sixteenth, the Anglo-Scottish borderlands suffered one of the most intense periods of warfare and disorder in modern Europe.

As a consequence of constant conflict, Borderers suffered horribly at the hands of marauding armies who ravaged their land, destroying crops, slaughtering cattle, burning settlements and killing indiscriminately. Forced by extreme circumstances, many took to reiving to ensure their survival. For the best part of 300 years, countless raiding parties made their way over the border, often returning under the cover of darkness, leading their prize of stolen livestock back through wild, empty country.

The story of the Reivers is one of survival, stealth, treachery, ingenuity and deceit.

'Think Peaky Blinders but with swords and a taste for cattle rustling'

* The Herald *

'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'

-- Hamish Coghill * Scottish Life *

'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 Report

ISBN: 9781780274454

Dimensions: 195mm x 130mm x 25mm

Weight: 313g

336 pages