After Work - Reading KINGSTON BY STARLIGHT

Who is tops on the most-piratical-scale: those who fly under the black flag, or the colonial governors who run their own fiefdoms, or the European governments who legalize slave ships?

In Kingston By Starlight, Christopher John Farley uses humour and history to challenge our acceptance of civilization’s moral centre. Anne Bonny started life in Ireland in a dysfunctional, not entirely legal family at the end of the seventeenth century. Over the course of her early years, she was serially abandoned by members of her family, as well as societies on both sides of the Atlantic. In horror of her “inevitable” fate of falling into prostitution, she created her own destiny on a pirate ship – disguised as a man, of course.

While pursuing the golden dream of a valuable ship’s cargo, the crew of colourful characters considered any ship with food and drink well worth capturing, even at risk to their own lives. And when fortune finally shone on them, the thrill of one more adventure lured them to the harsh judgment of the colonial legal system.

Caribbean piracy is the stuff of fables, and Kingston By Starlight adds to this tradition. In our own age Somali piracy is not at all romantic; similarly, in the eighteenth century piracy was greatly feared. Perhaps this novel adds a speck of understanding regarding our own world.