"Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas" by Laura Sook Duncombe

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9781613736012

This is an fascinating book filled with great information on the women who were or at the very least contributed to piracy throughout history. The vast majority of works about piracy never mention but a few women, when it seems rather obvious (at least to me) that there must have been a significant number of them. Unfortunately due to the patriarchy most women have been pushed to the side and therefore written out of history. Even more unfortunately is that this is a common occurrence in virtually all aspects of historical writing, unless of course the author is 1) a woman, or 2) cares about representing history truthfully.

I 'met' for the first time in this book many women pirates whom I'd never heard of before. Most people have I'm sure heard of Anne Bonny, and Mary Reed. But the adventures of women pirates started many centuries before these two ladies came on the scene.

Other notable women pirates included in this volume come from many ages throughout history. Some were forced into piracy due to their circumstances, other chose the life for themselves. Some of the women pirates are fictional, but others were real. Some only aided the pirates in their lifestyle while others were actually crew members. The majority of the ones who were actual crew members dressed as men, in some circumstances this was for disguise, while in a number of cases I'm relatively sure it was for practicality.

This was a very well researched and informative book. As for as I can tell Ms. Duncombe hasn't written any others to date but I would watch out for anything she produces in the future.

Highly recommended.

"Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate" by Angus Konstam

Publisher: Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Year: 2006
ISBN: 9780471758853


This book was an amazing read that is very well researched and written. I first heard of the author Angus Konstam when I watched a documentary called "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Real Story" which compared the Disney movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" to the facts. and Mr. Konstam was one of the people interviewed.

The book details the life of Edward Teach a.k.a. Blackbeard from his younger days in Bristol, England (as far as can be determined) to his death. It was interesting to read about all his various exploits and how they reinforced the public's impression of him during his short career.

The book goes into a fair bit of detail about the political situation in the American colonies at this time, which I found somewhat unimportant to the story, but this is undoubtedly because I don't really know any American history and therefore have nothing to relate it to. Looking back however (after doing a bit of research) I found that it was very important as the rivalries between the various colonies were both an opportunity that Blackbeard took advantage of, as well as the reason that he was eventually hunted down.

A great book, that I would recommend to all history buffs, and especially those who are fascinated by pirates, and life in general in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

"Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "Black Sails" by Starz Entertainment Group

This book was written in 1883, and has been reviewed many times by many people because it such a great story. My reasons for reviewing it however are somewhat different. This is because I just finished watching the fourth and last season of the Starz series "Black Sails", which was written as a prequel to Treasure Island and introduces you to many of the story's main characters. So, I suppose I am actually reviewing both Black Sails and Treasure Island but I figure I can try and get away with it just this once.

Typically - in my humble opinion - it is very rare for Hollywood to come even close to what an author actually has written. Most times they seem to take pride in the fact that when they buy the rights to a book or story they can totally change it and keep nothing but maybe the character names or the title. But that is simply a pet peeve that I have and luckily for you it won't be something I'll dwell upon, as you do not want me to start ranting about how Disney has ruined so many stories.

But because this show is a prequel (some 20 years previous) to the book the directors and writers had a great deal of latitude in what they could do. When actually comparing "Black Sails" to the book that inspired it there was very little that they actually did change. The few changes they made were in rather insignificant places. One of the few differences that I was able to note between the two was that in the book Long John Silver lost his leg from the hip down, during an accident at sea. In the series he loses it below the knee, during a fight / or you could possibly say as punishment.

In other areas, the show did make a few changes to the way history actually played out, but once again these were relatively minor, and these changes, do not detract from the story in any way.

All in all, I found Black Sails to be an excellent series, and I sincerely hope that the Starz people will consider making a version of Treasure Island to conclude the storyline. Rumour has it that there are spin-offs being considered dealing with other characters as well.

I should note that the series is quite graphic, and there is a fair bit of what some consider vulgar language, but anybody who has ever been around any real sailors (or construction workers for that matter), will know this really is how they talk.