Review

Long John Silver

By Tom Geddes

Published by The Harvill Press

Long John Silver, the double-crossing pirate from Treasure Island, is living out his last years on Madagascar.

Fear of post-mortem anonymity drives him to write his memoirs, duly presented here as “The true and eventful History of my Life of Liberty and Adventure as a Gentleman of Fortune and Enemy to Mankind."

With lashings of the 'cat', salt spray on the foredeck, tots o' rum, a smattering of wenches and the occasional ‘Shiver me timbers!’, this novel is richly evocative of Stevenson’s masterpiece without resorting to parody (credit for this must especially go to Tom Geddes, who translated the book from Swedish).

Larsson builds on Silver’s reputation for cunning, but he also imbues him with qualities of courage, pride, strength and, above all, honour (that most curious requirement of the successful privateer).

There are some nice asides about a few of Treasure Island’s characters - Livesey, for instance, is said to have turned to slave trading when he returned to Britain with his share of Captain Flint’s spoils - but these are almost incidental to the main story.

Bjorn Larsson has taken the bull by the horns and fashioned from one of the best-loved books of the last 120 years a right ripping yarn about the notorious Long John Silver and his numerous exploits on the high seas in the company of various bloodthirsty pirates.

A real swashbuckling adventure for whiling away the summer on the beach. Well worth a few pieces of eight.

Reviewed by James Smith, Booktrust website editor

---

Translator: Björn Larsson