Treasure Neverland: Real and Imaginary Pirates

[quantropy]

Why I looked at this book

Pirates are a favourite element of stories, and they aren't just seen as the bad guys. Why do we feel the need to glorify criminals such as these? Do we require a heroic narrative? And were those seen as pirates by some countries seen as patriots by others? I'm hoping that this book will answer such questions.

[quantropy]

First Impressions

Chapter 1 starts with an account of the life of Captain Every (or Avery) and his crew, who turned pirate, captured a ship belonging to the emperor of Mughal India, also kidnapping the Emperor's daughter. Every then set up a base in Madagascar, leading to the legend of a pirate kingdom. Rennie looks in detail at the believability of the reports of Every's career. What is known is that some of the pirates wanted to return to England, and many thought that this was reasonable, provided they paid some of their Mughal treasure for the privilege. I found this interesting, as it links to my question of how such criminals can be seen as patriots.

The Kindle sample seems to contain a significant part of the book; I don't know whether this is intentional or not. The Impression above was written based on the start of the first chapter.