Speaking Volumes

Who would have known? I certainly didn't! Talk Like A Pirate Day was September 19^th and Megan, our Children's Librarian was the first to know. She did a fine blog entry, Shiver Me Timbers, last Friday which explained the history behind the celebration. She soon had us all talking like pirates and calling each other "Me Hearty" (friend of a shipmate), dreaming of pieces of eight, and threatening anyone misbehaving with “walking the plank”!

All this pirate talk reminded me that pirate stories are well represented in the adult collection too. From Treasure Island to stories of Blackbeard we've always had a fascination with these swashbucklin' rogues.

One book, The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson was a hit with critics and reader's alike this past year. It's a tropical adventure of a storm-wrecked boat carrying Hollywood's most famous swashbuckler, Errol Flynn. The boat lands accidentally in Jamaica and Flynn spends much of the last years of his life throwing parties and sleeping with increasingly younger girls. Flynn has an affair with Ida which produces a daughter, May, who is therefore The Pirate's Daughter, May only meets her father one time but her destiny is intertwined with that of her famous father. Both Mother and daughter dream of a living a life in a more glamorous world and seek an independence not known to them while striving to find out who they are and where they belong. You can read an interview with the author where she talks about the research she did about Errol Flynn and why she chose him to be part of her novel.

Same name, different story is this selection written in 1997 by Robert Girardi. This Pirate's Daughter is about a woman, Cricket Page, who has a chance meeting with Wilson Lander. He buys her dinner. One thing leads to another and slowly he is seduced by Cricket, convincing him to board a tycoon's yacht and begin a journey across the great Sargasso Sea. This romantic adventure soon becomes treacherous for Wilson as he learns Cricket is a pirate's daughter. Though he desires her, there is danger for him in this exotic land. He must find a way to escape this woman who has stolen his heart.

A few other true adventures form our shelves...

Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish
Bruce G. Knecht

Pirates: An Illustrated History
Nigel Cawthorne

An oldie but goodie on DVD, The Black Swan , stars Tyrone Power as Pirate Morgan who is pardoned and made the new governor of Jamaica on one condition - he must stop his fellow pirates from doing their criminal actions.

Hope you enjoy these pirate tales, mat