The Steel Bonnets

Last updated

The Steel Bonnets
Author George MacDonald Fraser
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genrehistory
PublisherBarrie & Jenkins.
Publication date
1971

The Steel Bonnets (London: Barrie & Jenkins) is a 1971 historical non-fiction book by George MacDonald Fraser about the Border Reivers. [1] [2]

Fraser researched the book with his wife. [3] It concentrates mainly on the 16th century, and seeks to de-glamourise the period in some ways. [4]

Related Research Articles

George MacDonald Fraser English-born author of Scottish descent

George MacDonald Fraser was a British author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman.

Border reivers 1200s–1600s raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border

Border reivers were raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. They included both Scottish and English people, and they raided the entire Border country without regard to their victims' nationality. Their heyday was in the last hundred years of their existence, during the time of the House of Stuart in the Kingdom of Scotland and the House of Tudor in the Kingdom of England.

<i>The Herald</i> (Glasgow) Scottish broadsheet newspaper

The Herald is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. The Herald is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from The Glasgow Herald in 1992. Following the closure of the Sunday Herald, the Herald on Sunday was launched as a Sunday edition on 9 September 2018.

<i>Toronto Telegram</i> Canadian daily newspaper

The Toronto Evening Telegram was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed with a newspaper supporting the Liberal Party of Ontario: The Toronto Star. The Telegram strongly supported Canada's connection with the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire as late as in the 1960s.

Clan Mackenzie Scottish clan

Clan Mackenzie is a Scottish clan, traditionally associated with Kintail and lands in Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional genealogies trace the ancestors of the Mackenzie chiefs to the 12th century. However, the earliest Mackenzie chief recorded by contemporary evidence is Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail who died some time after 1471. Traditionally, during the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Mackenzies supported Robert the Bruce, but feuded with the Earls of Ross in the latter part of the 14th century. During the 15th and 16th-centuries the Mackenzies feuded with the neighboring clans of Munro and MacDonald. In the 17th century the Mackenzie chief was made Earl of Seaforth in the peerage of Scotland. During the Scottish Civil War of the 17th century the Mackenzies largely supported the Royalists. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the chief and clan of Mackenzie supported the Jacobite cause. However, during the Jacobite rising of 1745 the clan was divided with the chief, Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose, supporting the British-Hanoverian Government and his relative, George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie, supporting the Jacobites.

Clan Cameron West Highland Scottish clan

Clan Cameron is a West Highland Scottish clan, with one main branch Lochiel, and numerous cadet branches. The Clan Cameron lands are in Lochaber and within their lands lies Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in the British Isles. The Chief of the clan is customarily referred to as simply "Lochiel".

The Battle of Ancrum Moor was fought during the War of the Rough Wooing in 1545. The Scottish victory put a temporary end to English incursions in the Scottish border and lowlands. The battlefield has been included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and protected by Historic Scotland under the Historic Environment (Amendment) Act 2011.

<i>The Three Musketeers</i> (1973 live-action film) 1973 film by Richard Lester

The Three Musketeers is a 1973 film based on the 1844 novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. It was directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser. It was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for The Beatles, whom Lester had directed in two other films.

<i>Flashman</i> (novel) 1969 novel by George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman is a 1969 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the first of the Flashman novels.

<i>Above Us the Waves</i> 1955 British film

Above Us the Waves is a 1955 British war film about human torpedo and midget submarine attacks in Norwegian fjords against the German battleship Tirpitz. Directed by Ralph Thomas, it is based on two true-life attacks by British commando frogmen, first using Chariot manned torpedoes in Operation Title in 1942, and then X-Craft midget submarines in Operation Source in 1943. Filmed at Pinewood Studios, England, with outdoor scenes in Guernsey, some of the original war equipment was used in the film.

<i>The Last Valley</i> (film) 1971 film directed by James Clavell

The Last Valley is a 1971 film directed by James Clavell, a historical drama set during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). While war ravages southern Germany, a mercenary leader and a teacher stumble upon a valley untouched by the war. Based upon the novel The Last Valley (1959), by J. B. Pick, the cinematic version of The Last Valley, directed by James Clavell, was the final feature film photographed with the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process until it was revived to make the film Baraka in 1991.

<i>Bonnie Prince Charlie</i> (1948 film) 1948 British biographical film

Bonnie Prince Charlie is a 1948 British historical film directed by Anthony Kimmins for London Films depicting the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and the role of Bonnie Prince Charlie within it. Filmed in Technicolor, it stars David Niven, Jack Hawkins, and Margaret Leighton.

<i>The General Danced at Dawn</i>

The General Danced at Dawn is a collection of short stories by George MacDonald Fraser, narrated by Lieutenant Dand MacNeill, a young officer in a fictional Scottish battalion of the British Army, part of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division. It is a generally fond depiction of army life in the period just after World War II. It was published first during 1970. The stories were based on Fraser's own time as an officer of the Gordon Highlanders in Libya at that time.

Donald Hamilton Fraser

Donald Hamilton Fraser RA, is famed for his abstract landscape paintings.

Clan Munro Highland Scottish clan

Clan Munro is a Highland Scottish clan. Historically the clan was based in Easter Ross in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional origins of the clan give its founder as Donald Munro who came from the north of Ireland and settled in Scotland in the eleventh century, though its true founder may have lived much later. It is also a strong tradition that the Munro chiefs supported Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence. The first proven clan chief on record however is Robert de Munro who died in 1369; his father is mentioned but not named in a number of charters. The clan chiefs originally held land principally at Findon on the Black Isle but exchanged it in 1350 for Estirfowlys. Robert's son Hugh who died in 1425 was the first of the family to be styled "of Foulis", despite which clan genealogies describe him as 9th baron.

The Hollywood History of the World is a 1988 book about historical movies written by George MacDonald Fraser.

Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma is a military memoir of World War II by George MacDonald Fraser, the author of The Flashman Papers series of novels. Quartered Safe Out Here was first published in 1993.

Black Ajax is a historical novel by George MacDonald Fraser based on the career of Tom Molineaux.

<i>The Flashman Papers</i> Series of novels and stories by George MacDonald Fraser

The Flashman Papers is a series of novels and short stories written by George MacDonald Fraser, the first of which was published in 1969. The books centre on the exploits of the fictional protagonist Harry Flashman. He is a cowardly British soldier, rake and cad who is placed in a series of real historical incidents between 1839 and 1894. While the incidents and much of the detail in the novels have a factual background, Flashman's actions in the stories are either fictional, or Fraser uses the actions of unidentified individuals and assigns them to Flashman. Flashman is a character in the 1857 novel by Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days; Hughes' version of the character is a bully at Rugby School who is expelled for drunkenness. The character was then developed by Fraser, and appeared in the 1969 novel Flashman. Fraser went on to write a total of eleven novels and one collection of short stories featuring the character.

Battle of Mamsha

The Battle of Mamsha was a Scottish clan battle that took place in 1429 and that was fought by the Clan Fraser of Lovat who defeated the invading Clan Donald.

References

  1. Reynolds, Stanley (4 January 2008). "George MacDonald Fraser". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  2. "BORDERERS RUSTLE AMONG THE PAPERBACKS". The Canberra Times . 26 July 1974. p. 9. Retrieved 18 December 2013 via National Library of Australia.
  3. George MacDonald Fraser, The Light's On at Signpost, HarperCollins 2002 p304-307
  4. The age of the Borderers. Hugh Trevor-Roper. The Sunday Times (London, England), Sunday, October 31, 1971; pg. 41; Issue 7743.