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The Wall by Alistair Moffat

6/10/2013

Friends, this is my review of the book The Wall by Alistair Moffat. This is a book that has been sitting on my side waiting to be read for a number of months now, as I have been looking forward reading it and wanted to enjoy the anticipation. It did not disappoint.

Though it is called “The Wall”, it is really a potted history of Britain covering around 500 years centred around Hadrian's Wall. The book is ram packed with facts from research, and every couple of pages has a “QI” fact relevant to the time period at that time. These in themselves could have been collected together to form a book.

Much to Paulines' annoyance, every couple of pages I would say – did you know this (or that) so much so that she is now reading the book. Not only does the book give great information on how the wall was built over a ten-year period by more than 30,000 soldiers and labourers at the behest of the emperor Hadrian. It also gives a fascinating insight to Roman life in Britain at that time, along with lots of facts and figures about the wall itself - it consisted of more than 24 million stones, giving it a mass greater than all the Egyptian pyramids put together.

One of the things I was amazed to learn was how it went down the Cumbrian coast and all in all covered 120 miles, before reading the book I had thought it just went east-west across the country, as there was threats from the sea as well as from the land.

I do have another one of his books to read sitting on my shelves, but that will wait for a while, when the weather is not so good, as it is a bit longer

A very interesting book, packed full with facts and one that cannot really be hurried otherwise they will get missed. This was book 25 week 19 fiction 22 (5 on audio) non fiction 3

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The Reivers By Alistair Moffat

2/18/2012

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Alistair brings the history of the border area to life for the last 300 plus years of an active political and military frontier between England and Scotland. The book not only explains how the Revier way of life came about but has lovely, fascinating asides all the way through the text that keep one reverted to the story. The level of detail and research that must have gone into this is very evident, and brings to life the - deceit, ingenuity, treachery, stealth and survival that the Reviers carried out as they lived out their often long lives. All the more so as I live in the area that he describes, so can relate to the areas mentioned.

This is the first time I have read one of Alistair's books and I will now be searching out other ones in the hope that they are just as interesting

A book that can be thoroughly recommended – book 31, week 26 – written book 23, audio book 8

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The Wall by Alistair Moffat

The Reivers By Alistair Moffat

Tim Fuller

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