Yellowbeard: High Jinks on the High Seas!

by Graham Chapman

Among the many blackguards who left their bloodstained mark on history, the foulest of them all was the pirate Yellowbeard. His name struck terror into the hearts of gentlefolk in the days when Queen Anne was a monarch rather than a table. Until recently, however, Yellowbeard’s exploits were lost in the swirling mists of time.

Our story begins on a barque at anchor on the Spanish Main where the grim grandee, El Nebuloso and his evil inquisitor, El Segundo, gloat over a fortune in gold. With a blood-curdling oath, Yellowbeard strikes and makes off with the loot. Betrayed by his brutal bosun Mr. Moon, Yellowbeard spends the next twenty years in His Majesty’s Prison, St. Victims for the Extremely Naughty.

When he escapes, Yellowbeard immediately heads to the pub, now owned by his wayward wife to whom he’d entrusted his treasure map. Seems she burnt it, but not before tattooing it on the head of their son Dan. What ensues is a high-seas high jinks as all set sail for the Spanish Main where both the treasure — and an explosive welcome by El Nebuloso — await.

Genres: Humor, Film, Pirates

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Graham Chapman was an English comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. He was also the lead actor in their two narrative films, playing King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the title character in Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Reviews

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gives Yellowbeard far more attention than it deserves: a fairly long introduction, one of the screenplays (substantially different from the filmed version, apparently; I saw it only once when it came out and don't remember it well), and the novelization. The screenplay is mildly amusing, if overly-reliant on rape jokes and other cheap laughs. The novel, however, is dire. It frequently fails even to be grammatically sound. Very disappointing, overall.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is very little to say about this rather shallow novelisation of the Graham Chapman comedy film ‘Yellowbeard’. To be honest you would find more enjoyment from watching the film, even though the 1983 movie is rated rather badly by critics. Whilst I admit the movie has its faults it is still an interesting and somewhat engaging artefact of British comedy history. Unfortunately this book does nothing to add to one’s enjoyment of the film and is not sufficiently different enough from the movie to give one any real new pleasures. In fact the only reason one would probably want to read this book will be if you have not seen the film. The only reason one would probably want to own the book is because of its status as a collectible book amongst those of us who are Monty Python fans, or as I said before interested in British comedy history.

There are some useful screenshots taken from the film that are included in the book, and thanks to the simplicity of the prose and brevity of the story one can knock the text over in an hour or so max. At the end of the day I don’t think I can really recommend this to anyone except those who are interested in Graeme Chapman’s work or the post Python film corpus.