By Rebecca Simon, PhD

Fun, informative and entertaining, Rebecca Simon’s book is a great introduction to everything piratey. Looking at the Golden Age of Piracy, which is between 1650-1726, Simon traces what first got the public hooked on pirates and uses the adventures/misadventures of Captain Kidd to find the answers. 

I really enjoyed reading this book as Simon not only has an engaging writing style but she also clearly knows her subject inside out and her passion for it comes across in her writing. Simon is someone who has the ability to write in an enjoyable and engaging manner, without the need to bog you down with facts and figures. Please be assured that your brain will not be hurting and you will find yourself gripped by the life of late Seventeenth and earlier Eighteenth Centuries pirates.  

The book uses the life of Captain Kidd, who was executed for piracy in 1701, to guided readers through pirate’s lives and the various communities and governments that helped their enterprise succeed and become part of popular culture. One thing that I discovered from reading this book is how much communities in the Caribbean and the then Thirteen Colonies, relied on pirates when trade blockades were in place. Pirates were almost everywhere in the New World and as Simon shows it was not just in famous pirate enclaves such as Port Royal and Nassau, but ‘respectable’ places as well. Another thing that I could kick myself for not knowing, is that those hanged for piracy were hanged at Executions Dock in Wapping, rather than Tyburn. Their hands were also tied in front of them rather than behind to make them appear repentant to the gathered masses. Were they truly repentant though?… you will need to read to find out. 

One thing that I found really came a across in the book, the links between the reasons why people became pirates and their emergence in popular culture. These men and women, for a variety of reasons, were rejected by or rejecting society and its conventions and choosing to sail under the Black Flag. But this rejection was to see pirates be catapulted into glamorous figures of fascination and entertainment. They gave people of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries the chance to dream about escaping the drudgery and conventions of their everyday lives. It is idea of escaping society, that sees us still fascinated with pirates today. I mean, who doesn’t spend their morning commute daydreaming about sailing off into the sunset in search of adventure?