Damn' Rebel Bitches: The Women of the '45 [Paperback]

Damn' Rebel Bitches takes a totally fresh approach to the history of the Jacobite Rising by telling fascinating stories of the many women caught up in the turbulent events of 1745-46. Many historians have ignored female participation in the '45: this book aims to redress the balance. Drawn from many original documents and letters, the stories that emerge of the women - and their men - are often touching, occasionally light-hearted and always engrossing.

It's ten years ago this month (September 2007) since the first hardback edition of Damn' Rebel Bitches: The Women of the '45 was published, and I'm celebrating. It's never been out of print since and I know, because they've told me so, that many people all over the world have found it fascinating and inspiring. In fact, it's not unusual for me to find complete strangers flinging their arms around my neck when they discover I'm the author. This happens especially when I'm visiting the battlefield at Culloden Moor near Inverness where Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite army was eventually defeated in 1746. This site of the last full-scale battle to be fought on British soil is now for many of us, Scots and non-Scots, a very special place of pilgrimage and reflection.

Other people, both interested readers and academics, have been kind enough to tell me that Damn' Rebel Bitches was and remains a ground-breaking book, as it remains the authority on its subject. I certainly did my level best to find out as much as I possibly could about these previously largely unsung heroines of Scottish history, travelling all over the UK to trawl through original documents, newspapers, manuscripts and pamphlets in archives, record offices and libraries. I also corresponded with similar institutions in France and the West Indies. Very little was available on the Internet back in 1997. Research had to be done the hard - if very enjoyable - way.

I'm fiercely proud of Damn' Rebel Bitches, both in terms of the masses of original research I did and of the way in which I wrote it. I've been thrilled and honoured since to find the book cited in the bibliographies of some very well-respected historians.

We all view history through the distorting mirror of our own times. It would be impossible not to. I strove all the same to be as true, honest and accurate as I could when I wrote up my research. I had three other key aims. One was to allow the people of the 18th century as much as possible to speak for themselves, in terms of quoting their own exact words whenever I was able to find them. Another was to put the people in the context of their own times, customs and way of life and my final aim was to write the book in an entertaining and accessible way. I hope I've succeeded. Damn' Rebel Bitches: The Women of the '45 was my first published book, and remains very special to me, as do the men and women who people its pages. They always will.

Maggie Craig

Married with two children, Maggie Craig has been a medical secretary, a translator and a Scottish Tourist Guide. She is the author of Bare-Arsed Banditti, as well as several historical novels set in Glasgow and Edinburgh.