This is a superb addition to the Osprey series of publications, and manages to pack a quart into the pint pint of its slim volume. It gives a succinct but comprehensive account of Border fortifications from castles to bastles, via churches, peles and tower houses. It also manages to place these in the context of [...]

The one indisputable fact concerning the Border Reivers was their supreme ability in the art of theft and guerilla warfare. A lifestyle which required specialist equipment. The fully equipped Reiver represented an elite light cavalryman, capable of navigating rough terrain at night with practiced stealth, and when required implementing deadly force.

This is a stretch of land measuring, at the longest, 12 miles by 4 miles, but its size bears little relation to the trouble it caused. It had been called the Debatable Land as early as the 15th century, because its ownership was in dispute between England and Scotland.