treasure island

We have a large pile of assorted rocks in the garden.  This is most decidedly, not a ‘rock garden’ as such - simply a place were we can look upon our various geological treasures.  Some are souvenirs from field trips, others from holidays.  When we say we’ve brought back some rock from a seaside holiday, we do not mean a stick of sweet candy but a lump of something far older and less edible that happened to catch our eye. Anniemay is responsible for the skull that sits atop our island of treasures.

I’ve just finished reading Long John Silver by Bjorn Larsson.  It begins where Treasure Island finishes - when Long John Silver makes his escape from the Hispaniola.  It then imagines how his life turns out - and in particular, what happens when he meets Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe). 

While Treasure Island was a book written for children, Long John Silver is not.  This is grown up fiction.  There are some weighty issues under discussion; the nature of morality, slavery, the class warfare between the upper decks and the lower decks in both naval ships and merchant ships in the 17th-18th centuries.

My only problem with it - and it’s a small thing - is that I happen to see Treasure Island  on TV recently in which Eddie Izzard played the part of LJS.  And as I read the book, I kept seeing him in the role.  Which, in a way, is a tribute to his acting skills.  Both he and this book have killed off forever the ‘pantomime villain' version of the pirate that the actor Robert Newton - with his ‘oh arrgh Jim lad’ - brought to life in 1950 and which has become the standard for screen portrayals of pirates ever since.  Until now.

Larsson’s book shows us Silver the man. Highly recommended.