Book - It's Wales: Welsh Pirates - Paperback

ISBN: 9780862438654 (0862438659)

Publication Date: 20 March 2006

Publisher: Y Lolfa

Format: Paperback, 112 pages

Language: English

A brief history of Welsh pirates with biographies of of some of the most famous, including Harri Morgan, Barti Ddu and Hywel Dafis.

A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council: -

Pirates. The very word excites interest. This publication is about Welsh pirates, men who sailed the seas off the Welsh coastline from the early thirteenth century until the eventual decline of the practise sometime during the eighteenth century. We learn that the skull and crossbones flag was designed by a Welsh pirate, Black Bart, and that crews were made up of men from all walks of life, including the landed gentry. The pirates flourished thanks to the protection of some of the most powerful families, and they landed their booty, often in broad daylight, at Welsh ports.

The author has researched this subject extensively, the text is well written and easy to assimilate, packed with historical events, making for fascinating reading throughout. Divided into six chapters, such as ‘Who were the pirates?’, ‘Raiders of the Welsh Coast’, and ‘Raiders of the high seas’. In some detail he explains why men resorted to piracy, the reported cruelty, chivalry, the drinking and womanising, plus the ever-present danger associated with their escapades which meant that life as a pirate averaged only three years.

This is an excellent publication demanding reading, preferably during a stormy winter evening. The reader may well become inspired enough to seek out those inns identified here and known to have been frequented by these men, or resolve to visit a site where pirate ghosts have been sighted. Experience all this and much more from this great little book.

Anthony Roy