The Pirate's Daughter Margaret Cezair-Thompson

An unforgettable story of love and adventure, spanning three decades of Jamaican history.

Jamaica, 1946. Errol Flynn washes up on the island in the Zaca, his storm-wrecked yacht. Ida Joseph, the teenaged daughter of a Port Antonio Justice of the Peace, is intrigued to learn that the ‘World’s Handsomest Man’ is on the island, and makes it her business to meet him. For the jaded swashbuckler, Jamaica is a tropical paradise that offers the tang of adventure and the promise of personal salvation: a freshness that Ida, unfazed as she is by his celebrity, seems to share. Soon Flynn has made a home for himself on Navy Island where he entertains the cream of Hollywood – and Ida has set her heart on this charismatic older man. Ida’s child, May, will meet her famous father only once.

The Pirate’s Daughter is a tale of passion and recklessness, of two generations of women and their battles for love and survival, and of a nation struggling to rise to the challenge of hard-won independence. Margaret Cezair-Thompson has fashioned a novel at once provocative, refreshingly original and as spellbinding as even the richest haul of pirate treasure.

Editorials

• The Independent, 23rd November 2007

  '...the breathtaking pace and verve...make it a delight; a touch of summer reading in a grim winter'

• Review

  'A surprising yarn that is rich, salty and ultimately satisfying... sparkles with characters real and imagined'
  

  (Washington Post )
  
  

  'Imagine that you are a beautiful 13-year-old Jamaican girl. Imagine that Errol Flynn washes up near your town in his schooner after a hurricane... This is the delicious premise that sets The Pirate's Daughter in motion, and from there, the novel never stops for breath'

  (O magazine )

• The Daily Express, 23rd November 2007

  ' wonderful descriptions of life in Port Antonio....the book really comes to life when the handsome Flynn is around...no doubt this will be a big seller as it's already much talked about...'
  

• Sunday Telegraph, Dec 1, 2007

  Cezair-Thompson's evocations of Jamaican life, and especially her renditions of the bivrant local patios, are a joy to read, at once humourous, touching and poetic...The Pirate's Daughter charms as surely as any dashing film hero.

• Daily Express, Dec 15, 2007

  Wonderful descriptions of life in Port Antonio....the book really comes to life when the handsome Flynn is around...no doubt this will be a big seller as it's already much talked about.

• SAGA Magazine, Dec, 2007

  An astonishing love song to Jamaica' and `a romantic tour de force that provocatively confronts the concepts of historical Hollywood, modern colonialism and passionate adventure.

• Washington Post, November 2007

  A surprising yarn that is rich, salty, and ultimately satisfying...sparkles with characters real and imagined.

• USA Today November 2007

  The Pirate's Daughter offers plenty of serious passion and escape.

• Synopsis

  An unforgettable story of love and adventure, spanning three decades of Jamaican history.Jamaica, 1946. Errol Flynn washes up on the island in the Zaca, his storm-wrecked yacht. Ida Joseph, the teenaged daughter of a Port Antonio Justice of the Peace, is intrigued to learn that the 'World's Handsomest Man' is on the island, and makes it her business to meet him. For the jaded swashbuckler, Jamaica is a tropical paradise that offers the tang of adventure and the promise of personal salvation: a freshness that Ida, unfazed as she is by his celebrity, seems to share. Soon Flynn has made a home for himself on Navy Island where he entertains the cream of Hollywood -- and Ida has set her heart on this charismatic older man. Ida's child, May, will meet her famous father only once. The Pirate's Daughter" is a tale of passion and recklessness, of two generations of women and their battles for love and survival, and of a nation struggling to rise to the challenge of hard-won independence. Margaret Cezair-Thompson has fashioned a novel at once provocative, refreshingly original and as spellbinding as even the richest haul of pirate treasure.