The Pirate’s Daughter
Date Posted: Friday, January 18, 2008Author: Margaret Cezair-Thompson
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In 1946 Errol Flynn’s yacht was shipwrecked off the coast of Jamaica during a hurricane. Facing charges of statutory rape in the US, the matinee idol found the island a welcome haven, eventually buying a house there and spending most of his final years on the island.
Jamaican-born writer Margaret Cezair-Thompson takes this true story as the basis for her novel, The Pirate’s Daughter, and weaves an intoxicating tale spanning the years between the Second World War and the turbulent 1970s.
According to local legend, the Hollywood philanderer fathered dozens of illegitimate children during his stay on the island and in the novel Flynn’s affair with local girl, Ida, produces May - the eponymous Pirate’s Daughter. Fearing more scandal, Flynn abandons Ida, who is then forced to move to New York for work and in turn abandons May.
The Pirate’s Daughter is the story of May – a passionate and tough young woman - as she struggles to come to terms with her illegitimacy and mixed race status. It is the story of her relationship with her mother and her quest for a sense of belonging. It is also the story of Jamaica as it moves towards independence. Although Cezair-Thompson evokes the tropical beauty of the island, she also shows the poverty, class divisions and racial diversity which plague it.
The Pirate’s Daughter conjures up a vanished era and seamlessly blends the real and imagined. The narrative is peppered with cameo appearances by characters including Marilyn Monroe and Noel Coward.
Part family saga, part historical novel, the plot races along, fuelled by incidents of seduction and betrayal, dark secrets and hidden treasure.
Discussion points
- Who is the Pirate of the novel?
- What does the novel say about colonialism?
- What do May’s experiences tell the reader about Jamaica?
- Is Ida a good mother? What kind of father figure is Flynn?
- How important are issues of race in the novel?
- Does the blending of fact and fiction add to or detract from the novel?
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