'THE NOTORIOUS PIRATE MARY READ'
The true story of the Pirates of the Caribbean!
I self-published the first 'Mary Read' book decades ago. I was alerted years ago to new findings by Baylus Brooks, in his book on Edward Thache, 'Quest for Blackbeard'. And then there is the letter from Mary of Modena, and a supporting statement in a pirate trial, that make it clear that the Brethren were committed to making the exiled King James into the Emperor of the Americas. No wonder the Admiralty turned on them, stole their treasure and blackened their reputations. It took me years to rip the old 'Mary Read' book apart, and re-write it, until it was an epic, that had to be split into a series of four books.
"The Notorious Pirate, Mary Read” - Book One
Volume 1: Bastard – Raised as a boy to defraud her supposed grandmother, the illegitimate Mary Read refuses to don skirts and accept her inferior position as a woman in eighteenth century England. Yet running through Covent Garden in wartime, with her wild friend Sally, can only lead to trouble.
Volume 2: Sailor – On the run, Mary is taken under the wing of Edward Thache, and aboard the Dreadnought. As a cabin boy and Gunner in Queen Anne's Navy, she lives on the edge of starvation, while sailing against the French, and the exiled King James. Yet when Thache sails for his home in the Caribbean, imminent danger forces her to jump ship.
"The Notorious Pirate, Mary Read” - Book Two
Volume 3: Soldier – At sixteen, Mary enlists as a Redcoat, and charges into battle against the French. Befriending the notorious Irishwoman, Kit Ross, she joins the Cavalry, only to be brought down by a perilous battlefield romance.
Volume 4: Wife – A tempestuous marriage, and Mary's involvement with Sally and London politics, sees her a spy before the War over. With a Jacobite War threatening England, and the Spanish Treasure Fleet wrecked in Florida, Mary sails for the West Indies, part of a bold plan to make an American Empire for the exiled King James.
"The Notorious Pirate, Mary Read” - Book Three
Volume 5: The Brethren – Mary signs up with the Flying Gang of Nassau, most of them English sailors, dumped in the West Indies by the Admiralty after Queen Anne's War. She finds Thache amidst them, and he invents his fearsome persona of Blackbeard, and helps unite them into the Brethren of the Sea. Along with her young friend, Anne Bonny, they are soon ready to conquer the Americas for King James. Yet nothing is mightier than the Sea.
"The Notorious Pirate, Mary Read” - Book Four
Volume 6: Blackbeard – Thache is finally forced to follow Mary, and take King George's Pardon. Yet the Admiralty has no intention of losing England's American Colony to pirates, and decides to destroy them all, steal their gold, and destroy their reputations. And one by one, the Governors of the American colonies renege on the King's Pardon, and send Navy ships to unlawfully hunt them down.
Volume 7: Privateer – Mary tries to go straight under Governor Rogers, in Nassau, yet Sally sails in to re-kindle her hope of an American Empire for King James. Despite the Brethren withstanding a Spanish attack when War recommences, their honest life is over when the Governor turns on Anne Bonny.
Volume 8: Pirate – Sailing under Jack Rackam, Mary and Anne plunder the wealth of the Americas. Yet pirates stand strong, only if they stand united.
'Mary Read' is an epic novel, based on the life of the infamous eighteenth century pirate, who lived one of the strangest lives on record. Diligently researched, this historical adventure looks at the eighteenth century from the street, and gives a personal account, not only of one woman's constant struggle to survive, but of her harsh and anarchic times. The author's experience as a blue water sailor, including a Caribbean voyage in a traditional wooden trader, gives this seafaring tale the authentic smell of the sea. A gritty romp, Mary Read will keep you enthralled to the last page, and leave you with the stink of gunpowder in your nostrils and the roll of the open ocean under your feet.
NOW AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS AND PAPERBACKS ON AMAZON.
