Customer Reviews

Rob Roy MacGragor: His Life and Times

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A fascinating biography. This book inspired the film with Liam Neeson, but is so much more than a glimpse of the incidents chronicled in the film. W.H. Murray has given a well-researched, well-documented look at highland life that enables the reader to step into the shoes (or lack thereof) of the Scottish highlander. Everything from the clan structure, rivalries, English oppression, how to carry a handful of oats dipped in a stream for daily ration; it's all there. Mr. Murray gives us very detailed information on the subtleties of the constantly changing political climate and the MacGregor's sense of injustice.

This book is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in Scotland, the MacGregor Clan, or Rob Roy himself.

This is an elegantly written, thorough, balanced and fascinating account of a deservedly highly admired man.

The author provides a comprehensive historic and social background and a detailed biography. Real history, not the current hip Celtic fashion or Braveheart drivel.

I found the book moving and inspiring. A picture of an honourable, intelligent and courageous man, living his life by the laws of his time; a man who deserves to be remembered.

The film Rob Roy with Liam Neeson, runs amazingly close to this book. If you were inspired by the film, I think you will greatly enjoy this biography.

I'd also recommend John Prebble for his classic works on Culloden and Glencoe and the Highland Clearances.

This is a book for a scholar or a person dipping into Scottish history for the first time. An excellent book about Highlanders and there are precious few books available on the topic. The author has considered vast quanitities of sources; the only books lacking are Gaelic language sources such as those bilingual editions published by the Scottish Academic Texts Society. The author shows a broad understanding of the politics and economics of the period; what is unique is an attempt to understand Gaelic society. The "creach" or cattle raid is explained from a Highland point of view; it's a custom sanctified in the great Gaelic epic "Táin Bó Cuailgne". The format is very appealing as historical events are related to the colourful life of this one honourable man.

Murray does a great job of telling us about the true Rob Roy MacGregor (versus the tarted up Sir Walter F. Scott rendition to quote an English friend friend of mine)! Murray explains clearly the politics of the time in England, and the Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland: Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism); the Whigs and the Torys; etc. He gives a vivid depiction of the Highland way of life from the daily routine to engaging in commerce amongst local Highland clans, the Lowlanders, and England. Let's not forget "abduction" of live-stock for which Rob Roy in particular was well-noted. There is even information on the materials used in the dying of kilt and tartan plaids. The impression one gets is that if the Highlanders were left alone to continue their way of life, who knows how wonderfully it would have evolved and what contributions they could have made to the world. Murray is given extra credit here because he had to re-start this writing while in a Nazi POW camp. A must read for all who are interested in all things Scottish!

First, let me say that this is an excellent piece of work.

Now, allow me a minute to rant against the jacket design, which I feel gives a totally wrong impression of the book's nature and almost prevented me from picking it up in the store where I found it. It looks like one of those "Hero Stories for Kids" instead of the beautifully written and deeply researched work that it is. What's with the gaudy colors? And the huge fake-Gothic typeface - for an 18th century history? Perhaps the designer and publisher are a little unclear on the distinction between the Middle Ages and the Age of Reason.

But the final insult is when this account of a life spent in the glorious Highlands of Scotland is illustrated by a landscape - of London's Hampstead Heath! Ouch!

But anyway...This is an amazing work. Murray traces the span of Rob Roy's life from cradle to grave, and on the way conveys a tremendous amount of information about the rich and complex Highland society of those days. Above all, he stresses the moral codes that underlay that world - different, and more honorable and humane than those of the Lowlands, which were already the forerunner of the greedy, winner-takes-all mentality that led to the Clearances. Rob Roy MacGregor supremely embodied the Highland ethic, and his biographer clearly is in full sympathy with that. He takes the time to correct many slanderous myths that have grown up since Robs' day, and show how he often had to make difficult choices between competing possible alliances, and always in the end tried to choose what was best for his people, even if this brought him into major trouble with the powerful. Also, twice he rejected the offered support of a powerful noble if the price was to spread slander on another - even though the intended victim and Rob were at loggerheads.

Rob was a Jacobite, but too clear-sighted to expect a miracle from the tardy and half-hearted assistance of France, so he survived the turbulence of the '15 and did not live to see the '45 - probably just as well.

Just the descriptions of daily life in the opening chapters are a delight. In some ways, that way of life reminds me of the North American Indians before the calamitous arrival of Europe, especially the more agricultural societies vs. the hunters: simple dwellings, closeness to Nature, physical hardiness, a respect for ceremony: I was particularly struck by the wonderful detail of a chieftain's funeral, and how for the first time the new chieftain wore "three eagles' feathers in his bonnet."

Strongly recommended.