EXTRACTS: Pirates! Illustrators Special Edition © 2020 The Book Palace (128 PAGES in Full edition)

37 of action no person amongst themwas more resolute, or ready to board or un‐ dertake anything that was hazardous than Mary Read and Anne Bonny. And particularly at the time they were attacked and taken, when they were at close quarters, none kept the deck except Mary Read and Anne Bonny…Mary Read called to those under deck to come up and fight like men; and, finding they did not stir, fired her arms down the hold amongst them, killing one and wounding others”. These two young women were definitely not the sort to be trifled with. The first novel of note to portray these female pirates was Robert W. Cham‐ bers’ ‘The Rogue’s Moon’, published in 1929, in which Mary Read has a fairly prominent role. Read’s famous duel on the beach is splendidly illustrated by the noted American artist, Norman Price. His image of a fearsome pirate lunging at the lissom female fighter is unforgettable. Blackbeard himself needed no work of fiction to bolster his reputation as the most notorious pirate captain of them all. Edward Teach, alias Blackbeard, completely fitted the picture of what a pirate should be: tall, extremely strong, courageous in the extreme and frighteningly wild and tempestuous. Here was a man who was more than capable of unpredictable violence to keep his crew in awe and fear of him. The story goes that, drinking one night with his navig‐ ator, Israel Hands, Blackbeard quietly drew two pistols and fired under the Text continues on page 41 BELOW: Blackbeard , gouache on board by Graham Coton. Image used in an unidentified issue of Look and Learn . Blackbeard’s real name was Edward Teach or Edward Thatch (ca. 1680- 1718). He was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain’s North American colonies. FOLLOWING PAGES: Giovanni da Verrazzano , gouache on board by Severino Baraldi, interior illustration for Look and Learn . Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485- 1528) was an Italian navigator and explorer who charted the Atlantic coast of North America between the Carolinas and Newfoundland, including the New York harbour in 1524. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York is named after him. During his voyages he was also attacked by pirates.