The Reivers: The Story of the Border Reivers Paperback – 16 Mar. 2017

Ever wondered what life might be after Scottish independence with a hard border separating England and Scotland? Go back to the Sixteenth century to find out. Great book.

This book is worth buying as it gets to the kernel of history by beginning with a big raid led by Scott of Buccleugh which resulted in the successful theft of livestock. It does something to dispel the romantic myth of reivers riding in moonlight like the tobacco and rum smugglers of a later period. A lot of better work has been done on the Anglo-Scottish border reivers like Macdonald Fraser's Steel Bonnets, Tough's Last Years of an Elizabethan Frontier, Watts on Northumberland and even Coulomb's thesis on The Debatable Lands. Moffat has dreadful errors like Henry VIII and the Clap. As we have known for sometime now syphilis did not originate in America among the Indians and wasn't introduced to Europe by Columbus' men it was present in Europe during the Middle Ages perhaps even in Roman Europe. Bones excavated in England have syphilitic structural damage decided by comparing them to known syphilitic damage. The box method where items of knowledge are conveyed in boxes is deplorably unnecessary and distracting from the text.I'm glad I bought this book as it is exciting and several of the 'riding' names mentioned in the appendix were unknown to me.The book conveys a true picture of brutal poverty. He could have added another appendix of border vocabulary like Tough did but with additions.

A wonderfully researched and enjoyable read. The reader can almost imagine themselves riding through Liddesdale or Teviotdale on a moonlit winters night with much mischief to be made.

Good book by a good author

A most informative book. You do not , in my opinion, simply "read" this book start to finish - there is so so much detail to take in - many times I needed to "follow-up" the people, stories, history and the geography to fully understand things. Sometimes Alistair writes in the form of an adventure yarn (easy to read then and I did enjoy these occasions) and in addition there are many explanatory panels which were often fascinating too. Previous to reading this book I had no idea of the scale of the lawlessness that existed for centuries in this region. I never saw the TV series that also looked this lawlessness but if it came back on, I would watch it now. Personally I enjoyed the book and if I visit the (large) region of the UK (English and Scottish) involved it will be necessary to put it in the bag as no doubt there will be much to reference in the visit. These "colourful" reivers were a product of an artificial border, brutally fought over and often corruptly presided over - they died out almost as soon as The Act of Union was passed - wonder if they'll come back if Scotland votes "Yes" to independence?

We watch movies about the wild west, but the days of the border reivers were as wild than anything Hollywood could invent.

Interesting and very well-written. I found it an easier read the 'The Steel Bonnets'. I would have given five stars but for the erratic punctuation and missing bits in one of the verses ~ probably down to the publisher rather than the author!

To see the surnames of my own ancestors was an interesting bonus

Reivers! I first heard it as a kid in an ancestral family context. The term stuck like a tick in my brain. The story, I didn’t know. When I came across a history reference to Alistair Moffat’s ‘Reivers,’ the name sucked me in. I knew something about the reivers but not much.In chapter 2, from a bloody violent three-clan encounter from 1593 in Lockerbie - an unexpected name, my own … a clan leader of ill-tempered repute. It's the general area where the 'old country' ancestors supposedly came from. My name is doing nasty reiver deeds. It's the same name as my dad, my son, and my grandson. That first and last name in variations between first and middle repeats through generations. I think it's an unwitting pattern ... the name flows, my centenarian mother says.In chapter 2, the ole clan and cohorts are ‘blacklisted’ by the king, just one step short of no-naming and extermination. With the dawn of the 17th century, the reiving profession was ended. 'My clan' has chosen poorly and does not fair well. The first of my name pops up in the Carolina's in the first half of the 18th century.The ‘Reivers’ tells a regional, horse and cow thieving tale spiced with murders and massacres as Border clan’s take on all comers. The Borderlands had been savaged by genocidal scale war for nearly half a millennium. The reivers seem to exist as the generational response. It’s an obscure and blood vicious account.Moffat goes into extraordinary detail to awaken a most interesting historical excursion. The exploration of archives to deliver such details is stunning. Here is a historical account from deep in the Borderland with much from the Reiver's own words. Excellent storytelling.Moffat inserts fascinating little trivia detours that are the standard fare of witty tour guides. Moffatt earns 2-thumbs up for the effort. The trivia details are worth the price of the book.Moffat turns a brief historical footnote into a wildly good history.

Very interesting story of the Borderers

wonderful depiction of a distant world, and yet not so distant. A border man from this time would understand today's Afghanistan very well

I did enjoy this book. It was a good historical account of the years of the Border Reivers. I also bought ‘The Steel Bonnets’ and did prefer it. Possibly because it had more recollections and mentions of my own Elliot clan but overall I just thought it was better. This one also had to be imported from the UK so there were shipping charges and a three week wait whereas ‘The Steel Bonnets’ is available directly from Amazon with free shipping and quick delivery. Overall a good book but if you’re considering only one history of the Reivers I would go with The Steel Bonnets.

This turned out to be a much better read than I had expected. (Then again, I was mentally comparing it to The Steel Bonnets, which is the definitive work on the subject.) Moffat does a great job of exploring the Reivers' lifestyle based on exterior influences as well as the local wrinkles of living along the Border at that time in history. He does a better job of exploring the reiver psyche than most writers, which is important since with those fellows the mindset was everything when it came to explaining why they rode out. The boxed text on select terms also gave some interesting details which gave some context to words and their use. As a partial descendant from some Carrs, I am also indebted to Moffat for his extensive writings on the Kerrs, who apart from Fraser have not gotten a lot of mention in the current works.