The Debatable Land

'No short review can do justice to the intelligence, charm, variety and sheer interest of this book. Read it, and you will be richly entertained and enlightened.' Allan Massie, Scotsman
The Debatable Land was an independent territory that 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. Today, its history has been forgotten or ignored.
Inspired by a chance discovery, Graham 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, lead to several revelations of major historical significance, and prove the Debatable Land to be a crucial, missing chapter in the story of the United Kingdom.
'He tackles some serious misconceptions about the borderland . . . Robb intercuts the past and present, the intimate and the impersonal, to wonderful effect. Few authors write so well about things lost and neglected' Ian Jack, Guardian
'Timely, revisionist and entertaining' Daily Telegraph

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 Médaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border.