Captain in Calico

by George MacDonald Fraser

First published 2015

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3.5(463)

Jack Rackham, known as Calico Jack, returns to New Providence after accepting the royal pardon offered to pirates who abandon their trade. He attempts to live within colonial law but is drawn back towards the sea, gambling, political corruption and the company of Anne Bonny, whose determination and appetite for danger make her more than the conventional pirate captain’s mistress.

Their relationship develops as Woodes Rogers tries to suppress piracy and restore imperial government in the Bahamas. Rackham must choose between the fragile security of pardon and the independence offered by another stolen vessel, while Anne refuses to accept the domestic future arranged for her. The posthumously published novel imagines the ambitions and betrayals leading towards Rackham’s final cruise.