num_pages: 292
description: A veritable account of Fair Helen of Kirkconnel Lea, scrieved by Harry Langton.Harry Langton is called back to the country of his childhood to aid an old friend, Adam Fleming, who believes his life is in danger. He's fallen for Helen of Annandale and, in turn, fallen foul of his rival, Robert Bell: a man as violent as he is influential. In an ungovernable land where minor lairds vie to rule and blood feuds are settled by the sword, Fleming faces a battle to win Helen, and to stay alive.Entrusted as guard to the lovers' secret trysts, Langton is thrust into the middle of a dangerous triangle - and soon discovers Helen is not so chaste as she is fair. But Langton has his own secrets to keep - and other masters to serve. Someone has noticed his connections, and recruited him in their bid to control the hierarchy of the Border families; someone who would use lovers as pawns in the serious game of power and dynastic supremacy.Striking like a sword into the extraordinary history of the Borderlands, Greig's vital prose renders the Border Ballad Fair Helen of Kirkconnel Lea as a breathless romance, a stirring adventure, and a memento mori. Gutsy, atmospheric and wry as ever, he shines a candle-light on the dark days of a lawless land, and the real woman behind the legend often called the Scottish Romeo &amp; Juliet. Here it is brilliantly re-presented as the source of an equally famed, more complex drama.
language: English
title: Fair Helen
publisher: Quercus Editions