The Debatable Land - The Lost World Between Scotland and England

Author(s): Graham Robb

History

'A book worth reading' Andrew Marr, Sunday TimesThe Debatable Land was an independent territory which used to exist between Scotland and England. At the height of its notoriety, it was the bloodiest region in Great Britain, fought over by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James V. After the Union of the Crowns, most of its population was slaughtered or deported and it became the last part of the country to be brought under the control of the state. Today, its history has been forgotten or ignored.When Graham Robb moved to a lonely house on the very edge of England, he discovered that the river which almost surrounded his new home had once marked the Debatable Land's southern boundary. Under the powerful spell of curiosity, Robb began a journey - on foot, by bicycle and into the past - that would uncover lost towns and roads, reveal the truth about this maligned patch of land and result in more than one discovery of major historical significance.Rich in detail and epic in scope, The Debatable Land takes us from a time when neither England nor Scotland could be imagined to the present day, when contemporary nationalism and political turmoil threaten to unsettle the cross-border community once more. Writing with his customary charm, wit and literary grace, Graham Robb proves the Debatable Land to be a crucial, missing piece in the puzzle of British history.Includes a 16-page colour plate section.

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Sunday Times top-ten bestselling author Graham Robb turns his attention on his homeland for the first time in this beautifully-written and ground-breaking book

`A wonderful writer . . . No one else so relishes the odd corners of history' * Sunday Times * `Such a warm, gentle and generous writer, with no faux scholarly tosh or solitary ecstasy riffs' * Evening Standard *

Graham Robb was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has published widely on French literature and history. His 2007 book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. For Parisians (2010) the City of Paris awarded him the Grande Medaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border.

Section - i: List of IllustrationsSection - ii: List of FiguresSection - iii: A Guide to PronunciationUnit - 1: PART ONEChapter - 1: Hidden PlacesChapter - 2: OutpostChapter - 3: Panic ButtonChapter - 4: The True and Ancient BorderChapter - 5: `The Sewer of Abandoned Men'Chapter - 6: MouldywarpChapter - 7: BeachcombingUnit - 2: PART TWOChapter - 8: Blind RoadsChapter - 9: HarrowedChapter - 10: `Loveable Custumis'Chapter - 11: Accelerated TranshumanceChapter - 12: SkurrlywarbleChapter - 13: ExploratoresChapter - 14: Windy EdgeChapter - 15: `In Tymis Bigane'Unit - 3: PART THREEChapter - 16: 'Stob and Staik'Chapter - 17: `Rube, Burne, Spoyll, Slaye, Murder annd Destrewe'Chapter - 18: The Final PartitionChapter - 19: Hector of ye HarlaweChapter - 20: ScropeChapter - 21: Tarras MossChapter - 22: `A Factious and Naughty People'Chapter - 23: SilenceUnit - 4: PART FOURChapter - 24: GraticulesChapter - 25: The Kingdom of SelgoviaChapter - 26: `Arthur'Chapter - 27: The Great Caledonian InvasionChapter - 28: Polling StationsChapter - 29: No Man's LandChapter - 30: The RiverSection - iv: AppendixSection - v: ChronologySection - vi: NotesSection - vii: Works CitedIndex - viii: General IndexIndex - ix: Geographical IndexAcknowledgements - x: Acknowledgements

General Fields

  • : 9781509804689
  • : Pan Macmillan
  • : Picador
  • : 0.638
  • : February 2018
  • : 234mm X 153mm
  • : March 2018
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Graham Robb
  • : hardback with dustjacket
  • : English
  • : 941.37
  • : xviii, 334