Review: The Book of Pirates

Rating: ★★★★☆
www.thebookofpirates.com
I guess I never really thought about it, but it largely seems that pirate non-fiction is mostly available for two audiences – children and adults. But what about the inbetweeners? The adolescents who are beyond picturebooks, but not yet ready for the heavy, sometimes dry historical accounts found in historical novels? Enter The Book of Pirates: A Guide to Plundering, Pillaging and Other Pursuits.

Authors Jamaica Rose and Captain Michael MacLeod are no strangers to sharing their piratical wisdom. Indeed, they’ve been the primary forces behind the pirate trade publication No Quarter Given for, what, 17 years now? That’s a long floggin’ time, and the sheer volume of their pirate travels alone makes them well suited to the task of ushering our young adults into a wider world of swashbuckling adventure. Continue reading

After Action Report: St. Augustine Pirate Gathering 2010

The U.S. is full of great pirate festivals, large and small. But there are a very few locations that can nearly claim to have been doing piracy since the Golden Age itself – Key West and Gasparilla come time mind, and St. Augustine does as well. Being the oldest city in the country, and certainly well located to have seen its fair share of piracy, I’d always been under the impression that the St. Augustine Pirate Gathering was one of the “old guard” – but in this I was quite mistaken. The Gathering is in fact only in its fourth year, although thanks to a fine, piratey location, plenty of local flair, and the strong support of nearby crews and piratey businesses, it’s nonetheless a festival in full stride. Continue reading

Brad Cooper Claims NQG Cover…

nqg_cooperBrad Cooper – the very same bloke that crafted the current Bilgemunky.com masthead (yes, that glorious piece of art at the top of your screen right now, unless you’re reading this through an RSS reader, in which case you’re missing half the fun, you silly lubber) – has penned the cover of the latest issue of No Quarter Given. The cover story is a collection of thoughts from throughout the pirate community regarding the recent Somalian pirate incidents, and how it has affected the public’s perception of pirate reenactors and enthusiasts. Personally, I think the violence in Somalia means we should all abandon our piratey interests and instead find some untainted “good-guys” to promote, such as knights in shining armor. Oh wait, I guess the crusades were somewhat questionable. Ok, let’s glorify ancient rome… or maybe not, what with all the gladiators and torture. Old west? Uh oh, indian slaughter. Indians? Nope, they were pretty mean too at times. Geez, who ever thought that history would be so complicated and full of gray areas? I guess so long as we’re not glorifying Jack the Ripper or Nazis, maybe people just need to LIGHTEN UP.