The Candlemass Road
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HarperCollins (US)
 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | George MacDonald Fraser |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | historical fiction |
| Publisher | Harvill Press (UK) HarperCollins (US) |
Publication date | 1993 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Pages | 156 |
The Candlemass Road is a historical novel from George MacDonald Fraser set in the time of the Border Reivers, a period Fraser had earlier written about in The Steel Bonnets and would later return to in The Reavers.[1][2]
Fraser later described it as "a rather dark morality tale - at least I meant it to have a moral - in what I hope was a reasonable imitation of Elizabethan English".[3]
Fraser originally wrote it as a play but was dissatisfied with the result and rewrote it as a novel.[4]
The author said he had another purpose in writing the book, to emphasise the decline in law and order. "We're becoming a nation of broken men," he told a journalist in 1993. "Now that the law fails to protect us, people have just got to look out for themselves - within the custom of the country, which is not necessarily within the law."[5]
The book is mentioned in the film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane.
The book was adapted for radio.[4]