Pirates : Truth and Tale

by Helen Hollick

The historian R. H. Tawney famously wrote, ‘The sixteenth century lives in terror of the tramp.’ The eighteenth century lived in terror of the tramps of the seas – pirates. Pirates have fascinated people ever since.It was a harsh life for those who went ‘on the account’, constantly overshadowed by the threat of death – through violence, illness, shipwreck, or the hangman’s noose. The lure of gold, the excitement of the chase and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered were judged by some to be worth the risk. Helen Hollick explores both the fiction and fact of the Golden Age of piracy, and there are some surprises in store for those who think they know their Barbary Corsair from their boucanier. Everyone has heard of Captain Morgan, but who recognises the name of the aristocratic Frenchman Daniel Montbars? He killed so many Spaniards he was known as ‘The Exterminator’.The fictional world of pirates, represented in novels and movies, is different from reality. What draws readers and viewers to these notorious hyenas of the high seas? What are the facts behind the fantasy?

328 pages, Hardcover

Published February 15, 2017

About the author

I escaped London in January 2013 to live in North Devon - but was born in Walthamstow, North East London in 1953 I began writing at the age of 13. Desperately wanting a pony of my own, but not being able to afford one, I invented an imaginary pony instead, writing stories about our adventures together at every spare opportunity. In the seventies I turned to science fiction - this was the age of Dr. Who, Star Trek and Star Wars. I still have an unfinished adventure about a bit of a rogue who travelled space with his family, making an honest(ish) living and getting into all sorts of scrapes. Perhaps one day I might finish it.

I had wanted to become a journalist when leaving secondary school, but my careers advice was not helpful. "Don't be silly," I was told, "you can't type." (I still can't, I use four fingers.) Instead, I worked in a Chingford library where I stayed for 13 years although I was not very happy there - I did not realise it, but I wanted to write. The one advantage of the library, however, was the access to books, and it was there that I came across the Roman historical novels of Rosemary Sutcliff, the Arthurian trilogy by Mary Stewart, and the historian Geoffrey Ashe. I was hooked on Roman Britain - and King Arthur!

Reading everything I could, I eventually became frustrated that novels were not how I personally felt about the matter of Arthur and Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere).

By this time, I was married with a young daughter. I had time on my hands and so I started writing my idea of Arthurian Britain . I deliberately decided not to include Merlin and Lancelot, there was to be no magic or Medieval myth. My book was to be a "what might have really happened" historical novel, not a fantasy, and most certainly not a romance! What I didn't know, when I started, was that my one book was to grow into enough words to make a complete trilogy.

I found an agent who placed me with William Heinemann - I was accepted for publication just after my 40th birthday. The best birthday present I have ever had.

I had previously had a smaller success with a children's personal safety book (stranger danger) called "Come and Tell Me," a little story that I had written for my daughter when she was 3. I wanted to tell her how to keep safe in a clear and simple manner - with a message that could be easily remembered. "Always come and tell me before you go anywhere with anyone" fitted nicely. I was immensely proud when my little story was taken up as an official safety book by the British Home Office to be used nationally by the police and schools. An updated and revised version of "Come and Tell Me" was re-published by Happy Cat Books but is now out of print.

I followed on with two Saxon period novels A Hollow Crown and Harold the King - both are about the people and events that led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 - from the English point of view.
(these titles are published as The Forever Queen and I Am The Chosen King in the US)

When Heinemann did not re-print my backlist I took my books to a small UK independent publisher with their even smaller mainstream imprint, adding my historical adventure series the Sea Witch Voyages to my list.
Unfortunately Discovered Authors / Callio Press, were not as organised as they should have been and the company closed in the spring of 2011. Not wanting my books to fall out of print in the UK I took them to an indie company - SilverWood Books of Bristol UK - and with their technical assistance "self published"

I am also with Sourcebooks Inc in the US, with Artemis Yayinlari in Turkey, Sadwolf in Germany at Catnip Edizioni in Italy.
I was delighted to make the USA Today bestseller list in 2011 with The Forever Queen (US title of A Hollow Crown)

I have published two non-fiction books: Pirates Truth and Tales with Amberley Press and Smugglers : Fact and Fiction with Pen & Sword.

I also run an historical fiction review blog, Discovering Diamonds, with a dedicated and enthusia

Reviews

[Lucienne Boyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helen Hollick’s book Pirates: Truth and Tales blends history, fiction and her own very approachable style to produce a splendidly readable book. She doesn’t evade the fact that pirates were a horrible bunch of men and women, but makes a clear distinction between the fascinating pirates of fiction and the repulsive pirates of reality. She also explores the social and economic causes of piracy, which often came about as a result of poverty and injustice. She shows that it was also often impossible to distinguish piracy from state-authorised marauding, when definitions of criminality depended on political and strategic convenience. It’s all done with a light yet knowledgeable touch and you’ll find sailors’ yarns aplenty to keep you entertained over a glass of grog. The book includes a nautical glossary, a sea shanty or two, and even a recipe for damson rum. You’ll be talking like a pirate with the best of them after reading this!

Disclosure: I read a review copy provided by the publishers.

[Loretta · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent book. Helen Hollick has a great way of informing in a manner which is also very entertaining. It you want to know what those dastardly swashbucklers really got up to, do read this book.

[David Pearce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book as part of a prize from All About History magazine and it was the last of the three that I started reading as I have no interest in pirates and never have done even as a child. The plus points here are that Helen Hollick's research is fantastic in its breadth and depth. She clearly knows a huge amount about the subject and communicates her enthusiasm for the subject very well. The problem for me is that it is broken up in to pen portraits of pirates who all blend in to one another as they do the same things in the same ways. However, the most off putting part of the book is Hollick's insistence on shoehorning in extracts from her own novels which are just thinly disguised advertising slots. Once I got to the second I just flicked past them because they have no place in a non fiction book. I struggled through the bulk of this book because I hate leaving books unread, but I can honestly say that unless you are a huge fan of pirate stories it really isn't one to pick up.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh what a mixed bunch of feelings about this. By far the best book about pirates I have read, with a load of research done by the author, who obviously loves her subject, but I might as well get my negative criticism out of the way: why so many extracts from her own novels? And if so then why not any comparable extracts from other well-known (and one most definitely out of copyright so no fees to pay by quoting from it surely?) piratical novels? That is really only a minor gripe as it is a supremely enjoyable, varied and well-written book about a subject that I have recently grown to love, thanks to Black Sails. Very highly recommended and lots of fun.

[Skord · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad history but I could have done without the intermittent self publicising fiction samples.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this informative and comprehensive book, the author takes the idea of pirates and piracy, a subject close to her heart, and shows how the literary and movie images of pirates, often bears little, or no, resemblance to the actual physical reality of the real life sea terrorists of the 17th and 18th centuries. The 'golden age' of piracy whilst steeped in mystique and legend, was, all too often, a time of great danger and uncontrolled violence. Interspersed throughout the book is the author's impressive knowledge of historical detail and it is obvious that a great deal of research has gone into bringing this piratical guide to life. Skillfully blending historical facts with literary fiction, sometimes, the book reads as lightly as a novel, but then, at other times, we come sharply back to reality with daring tales of mischance and menace, of lives ruined by too much grog and too many loose women, and which ended, all too often, dangled at the end of a hangman's rope.

Throughout the book, the author's real life buccaneers nestle comfortably alongside their more colourful literary counterparts. I especially enjoyed seeing the author's own pirate creation, Jesemiah Acorne, from The Sea Witch Voyages, come to vibrant life in his own much deserved chapter. The book has a rich and lively vocabulary, with snippets of interesting facts about pirates and piracy that you never knew you needed to know, but which are all recounted with the authors sparkling wit and fine attention to detail. For the songsters among you there are words to popular sea shanties, some familiar like, Spanish Ladies and What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor and others such as, The Top Man and the Afterguard, which are rather more obscure but no less fascinating to read of their origin and usage.

However you like your pirates, be they real or imaginary, there is no doubt that Pirates:Truth and Tales, is a great dip in and out of kind of book and whichever page the book falls open at, you are guaranteed to find a fascinating snippet into the life and times of these colourful, and it must be said, decidedly, dangerous characters.

[ProofProfessor · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Out of courtesy, the author and the publisher (Amberley) were both contacted before this review was posted, but neither responded.*
This book contains 249 errors of spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation. The errors begin on the copyright page and increase a few pages later in the Timeline where ‘Hans Sloan’ should be ‘Hans Sloane’ (p10). Here is a summary, with examples, of what this reader found:
- in the Timeline (p10) 1685 comes before 1684.
- there are straightforward spelling mistakes: hansome (> handsome, p32); yeilded (> yielded, p34); rum and coke (> rum and Coke, p83); acolade (> accolade, p147).
- many proper names are incorrect: Isle of White (p268), You Tube (p283), Kings Lynn (p250), Kiera Knightly (p244).
- verbs don’t agree with their subjects in terms of singular and plural: ‘the ship were in northern waters’ (p233); ‘The delight of this adventure story are…’ (p194); ‘Anne’s name and gender was widely known’ (p105).
- plurals follow an indefinite article: ‘an East Indiamen’ (p144), and follow a singular demonstrative pronoun: ‘at the back of this books’ (p259).
- there is consistent misunderstanding of how the hyphen is used to clarify meaning.
- ‘off’ and ‘of’ are confused (p164), as well as homonyms such as ‘principle’/‘principal’.
- apostrophes are misplaced and incorrectly reversed.
- perfectly spelled words are nevertheless wrongly used to create an error: ‘as the ship goers down’ (p43), ‘[a] solution was set in placer’ (p177).
- sometimes there is no spacing between words: ‘July1726’ (p284).
- the author twice misquotes the title of the book as ‘Pirates: Truth and Tale’ (p202, p319; the cover image on Amazon incorrectly shows ‘Tale’), as well as styling one of her publishers, SilverWood as ‘Silverwood’ (p318).
I'm grading it 4* for the writing, and 1* for editing/proofreading.
So who is at fault here, for the 249 errors? I have to conclude that the author, who is probably the number one authority on pirates and their world (and who certainly writes with great gusto), has been very badly let down by Amberley, the publishers. Surely it does not reflect well on the author’s knowledge if the book prints the very well-known ‘Mary Celeste’ as ‘Marie Celeste’ (p18; a mistake also made by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1884) and the equally well-known ‘Judge Jeffreys’ as ‘Judge Jeffries’ (p10).
The experience of reading this book only reinforces this reviewer’s opinion that (semi-)mainstream publishers now put very little time (and presumably money) into getting the author’s text even close to being accurate and readable before publication, and thus have abandoned the role they traditionally played of ensuring that the author’s usually very hard work is presented in the best possible way.
On page 93 the author states: ‘My favourite desert is rum and raisin ice cream’. Editorially, one can laugh or one can cry.