title: British Outlaws of Literature and History: Essays on Medieval and Early Modern Figures from Robin Hood to Twm Shon Catty
author:  Alexander L. Kaufman 
description: "a very worthwhile volume..an excellent educational tool"--<i>Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching</i>.
zlib_text: > _Foreword_
  
  Every family has stories about its more colourful members, both living and
  dead, and mine is certainly no exception. But I had always assumed that the
  family legend that my many-times-great grandfather was a member of the
  original Robin Hood’s 12th-century gang of outlaws – that he was, in fact, the
  renowned medieval _trouvère_ and swordsman, Sir Alan Dale – was no more than a
  charming fairytale passed down by successive generations of the Westbury
  family with their tongues firmly in their cheeks.
  
  However, after the death of my father Professor Roderick Westbury-Browne last
  year, and the discovery of a mass of papers in a dusty school trunk in his
  neglected attic in Albert Street, Nottingham, I have changed my view. The
  papers, which are typed out on faded yellow A4 paper, purport to be a
  collection of ancient manuscripts transcribed to a modern format from the
  original decaying vellum by my father in his spare hours, when he was not
  engaged in teaching Medieval History 