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If Jesus Christ were amongst them, they would deceive him," it was said of the Border reivers, the rustlers, outlaws and gangsters who terrorized the Anglo-Scottish frontier of four hundred years ago. Theirs is an almost forgotten chapter of British history, preserved largely in folk-tales and ballads. It is the story of the great raiding . Families - Armstrongs, Elliots, Grahams, Johnstones, Maxwells, Scotts, Kerrs, Nixons and others - of the outlaw bands and broken men, the "hot trod" pursuits, and the great battles of English and Scottish armies across the Marches. The Steel Bonnets tells their true story for the first time and in its historical context - how the reivers ran their raids and operated their system of blackmail and terrorism, and how the March Wardens, operating the unique Border law, fought . The great lawless community.

George MacDonald Fraser is the author of the Flashman novels, Mr American, The Pyrates and the McAuslan stories.