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The Pirate's Daughter

3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 · rating details · 1,287 ratings · 227 reviews

A multi-generational story based around the extraordinary true story of Errol Flynn's arrival in 1940s Jamaica. The Pirate's Daughter follows Ida, a young girl who falls for Flynn's legendary charms. Through the eyes of Ida and her daughter, May, it also tells the story of their home, Jamaica before and after independence.

Paperback, 503 pages

Published June 12th 2008 by Headline Review (first published January 1st 2007)

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Aug 19, 2008 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2008, pirates

In 1946 Errol Flynn's boat was shipwrecked in Jamaica on its way to Haiti; he fell in love with the country and bought a small uninhabited island off the coast of Port Antonio called Navy Island, continuing his rascally ways, hosting wild parties where he drove Truman Capote into the swimming pool, and Marilyn Munro danced ... and a young local girl called Ida, infatuated with the handsome movie star, becomes his lover at 16 and gives birth to a baby girl, May.

This is the story of Ida and May an...more In 1946 Errol Flynn's boat was shipwrecked in Jamaica on its way to Haiti; he fell in love with the country and bought a small uninhabited island off the coast of Port Antonio called Navy Island, continuing his rascally ways, hosting wild parties where he drove Truman Capote into the swimming pool, and Marilyn Munro danced ... and a young local girl called Ida, infatuated with the handsome movie star, becomes his lover at 16 and gives birth to a baby girl, May.

This is the story of Ida and May and Jamaica, and the characters that come and go throughout three decades of peace and upheaval. While Errol Flynn was a real person, and his manner of arrival in Jamaica and his flashy lifestyle on Navy Island, are all based on fact - and here it's obvious the author's read Flynn's own autobiography, as well as other works - the rest is fictional. His British friend and author of spy novels, Nigel Fletcher, is obviously based on Ian Fleming who lived in Jamaica and wrote his first Bond books there, but this isn't a biography or anything of that nature.

As far as the story goes, it's a very good tale, and feels very real. I learnt a lot of little things about Jamaica I'd had no idea about - like how, since the beginning, it wasn't just a matter of white people and black people, but white, black, Chinese, Indian, Syrian, Lebanese and so on; it must have been one of the earliest, truly multicultural countries around. The portrayal of Jamaica is vibrant and sensual, in the sense that I felt like I could see it, hear it, smell it, feel it. In a way, it felt like the island nation was the real star of the book.

Ida and May are two very distinct characters, verging on likeable but always holding back. I hate reading about women who throw their lives away on the love of a man who doesn't deserve it, doesn't appreciate it and, even worse, doesn't even notice it. Ida came close to being just such a woman, but luckily it never went down that truly melodrammatic path. In fact, the novel never slipped into corny self-indulgence or melodrama; but part of that could be because of how it was written.

The prose is where I think the book fell flat for me. Perhaps it's because the author read biographies and history texts etc., but it was written in a completely "tell" way. What I mean is, the omniscient narrator - who shifts perspectives constantly - simply tells us everything, leaving us entirely dependent on what is doled out to us, what is revealed and kept hidden, giving us no opportunity to discover things for ourselves, draw our own conclusions, or get to the characters in a more intimate way. And I would have liked to, very much. Especially Karl, who I thought was the most interesting character, but whom you never get the chance to really appreciate the way you want to. Mostly because of Ida.

In its own way, the prose works - it's constant, consistent, very nicely paced and well-structured - almost like it was written to a metronome. It gives the book the feel of historical accuracy, but it also greatly distances the reader from the story, way more than was intended I'm sure. Here's a short paragraph, chosen randomly, to give you a feel for the prose:

He [Errol] looked at the clock. It was a little after ten and his head was pounding. Today he would try not to have a drink until lunchtime. Not that he was worried about being an alcoholic. It was just that the morning cocktails stopped him from getting any work done. In the morning, while Brenda slept, was the best time for writing, and he wanted to finish his screenplay about the Cuban rebels by the end of the month. (p.187)

The only things I knew about Errol Flynn before reading this book was that he was born in Tasmania, like me, and that he was a famous Hollywood actor - and the one movie I knew he'd starred in was Robin Hood. Here his pirate films are more important, and I did feel like I was reading a pretty accurate portrayal of the actor. I can't say I liked him very much.

While I didn't find it as satisfying as I'd hoped - because of the way it was written - I did enjoy the story, for what it's worth. It's just that I find the two - prose and plot - inseparable, and one impacts on the other. It's a good story that could have been told better, rather than a dull story told well - it's the better option of the two, and for that alone I'd recommend it, especially if you're interested in the era, the country, the culture, Errol Flynn or pirate stories. (less)

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Feb 20, 2008 Amy Galaviz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

*Note: Spoilers included -- This book was quite a page turner (atleast the first 3/4s). Having frequently visited Jamaica myself, I was impressed with how Cezair-Thompson captured the native dialect, landscape, and political instability that came with Jamaica's independence from Great Britain in the 60s. Also, she does well describing the prejudice often experienced by white Jamaicans, or even people of lighter skin - this actually turns out to be one of the central components of May's struggle...more

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Dec 07, 2008 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an entertaining read - for me, more like a summer book, nothing too heady, just fun. I loved getting a sense of the dialect and some of the political strife faced by the islanders in the 60's.

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Jul 12, 2009 Tracey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary

I expected more from this book somehow. The whole Hollywood glamour thing really was redundant, although it was easy to believe the fictional character could've had the affair with the very real Errol Flynn who lived there for a time. It also made me a tad uncomfortable. Why pick such a famous star even if he did live in Jamaica? I felt it would've been better with a fictional actor but that's just me.

The real star of the book was Jamaica itself and I learned a lot about this country as the hist...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Melinda Seyler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Melinda by: newleaph@gmail.com

The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
This book creates the feeling of the Caribbean from the beginning. Although sometimes the Jamaican dialect is a bit hard to decipher, the descriptions of the people and places all ring true and draw you into the feeling of the place and times. This is the fictional tale of a family: Oni, the Maroon grandmother who lives in the mountains of Jamaica, her daughter Esme, who is half Chinese and husband Joseph, who is Middle Eastern, their daughter Ida...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Adrian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pirates have for decades had a sort of pantomime feel to them especially in literature. Thanks to the likes of Long John Silver, Captain Pugwash, parrots and pieces of eight. But in reality they never lost their fearsome bloodlust, they just started wearing t-shirts and cut-off jeans , dumped cutlasses for Uzi’s and AK 47’s and made the coast of Somalia a no go area, thanks to the reach of 24/7 news. While on the silver screen, the swashbuckler’s of old had lost their appeal until Disney and Cap...more Pirates have for decades had a sort of pantomime feel to them especially in literature. Thanks to the likes of Long John Silver, Captain Pugwash, parrots and pieces of eight. But in reality they never lost their fearsome bloodlust, they just started wearing t-shirts and cut-off jeans , dumped cutlasses for Uzi’s and AK 47’s and made the coast of Somalia a no go area, thanks to the reach of 24/7 news. While on the silver screen, the swashbuckler’s of old had lost their appeal until Disney and Captain Jack Sparrow, allowed them to remerge and capture a new audience. But before Johnny Depp, there were a few very successful pirate actors. The off screen life of one of them, Errol Flynn is the basis for Margaret Cezair Thompson’s book, ‘The Pirates Daughter’.

Cezair Thompson’s second book tells the story of a young Jamaican girl called Ida Joseph, who is lives a simple life on the Caribbean island in 1946 when Hollywood film star Errol Flynn is run aground in his boat during a hurricane. He immediately falls in love with the island and with the help of Ida’s dad, Eli, a local entrepreneur cum ‘Delboy’. He sets up home and starts bringing the cream of Hollywood to the island as well as his playboy antics. He soon charms the young teen and ends up getting her pregnant. But then he goes back to America to film and when he returns he’s married to another woman and goes about avoiding her. The book goes on to tell the story of how she strives to raise her daughter May and get on with their lives with the ghost like presence of Flynn in the background, even in death.

The writing in the book is very descriptive and immediately immerses you into the tropical, spice rich life of Jamaica. This was a sentiment expressed by the book group when it was presented recently. It comes across as a well researched piece of fiction, which it is but that’s a grey area as the life and loves of Errol were numerous and regularly got him in trouble. But where the book falls down is that it is overrun with characters and on a number of occasions I found myself getting slightly waylaid while trying figure out who was who.

Something else myself and the other members of the group agreed on, was that this book was about a hundred pages too long. I personally think the book loses its sole purpose when the central character is killed off. Not Errol’s fault just Cezair Thompson’s mis-alignment of the story chronologically and her clumsy attempts to wing some sort of a romantic story on the memory of Errol Flynn.

So before you set sail in this book, beware it’s more a slow boat to china then a fanciful adventure based on the sordid rum soaked later life of a movie icon.(less)

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Aug 08, 2012 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very enjoyable novelization about Jamaica and Errol Flynn's misadventures there. I normally don't read this type of novel (I guess it could be classified as a romance novel), but I have always liked Errol Flynn's movies and when I heard this novel was about him, I decided to join this bookring. Even though there are definite elements of a romance novel in this, I thought it was much more - delving into Flynn's declining years, his time in Jamaica (Navy Island), his womanizing and drinking which...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Dora Okeyo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Pirate's Daughter, felt more like a story about Ida than it was for May. Ida (May's Mother) gives birth to her when she is barely eighteen and the father, Errol, has no love for anything but himself and he never cares for her-and this leaves Ida working hard to care for her daughter May, and her Father Eli, who's just had a stroke!
In reading the story, May almost has the same life as her Mom, she goes through the same things as her Mom, and you can't help but see how alike they are-only diff...more

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Sep 21, 2008 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: BOOK CLUBS!!!!

Recommended to Julie by: Book Group Expo

Sometimes when I'm on the subway, there will be an ad for a Caribbean island, and I just want to dive in (Remember the girl on the beach in Barton Fink?) That was this book. Every night I picked up the book and dove into the picture.
Lush, vibrant prose. I was utterly transported! No stock characters, honest, real, grabs you in and holds you through the whole story. Swashbuckling pirates, beautiful women, Obeah women.....Cezair-Thompson is a brilliant novelist.

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Sep 14, 2012 Kerry Hennigan rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Pirate's Daughter" is the story of May Flynn, illegitimate daughter of Errol Flynn and Jamaican beauty Ida Joseph. A mere teenager when she first meets the charismatic Flynn, who has sailed to the islands aboard his beloved yacht Zaca, Ida is repeatedly drawn to him, despite his reputation as a lady's man, and the fact that he is married.

But Margaret Cezair-Thompson's evocative novel is also about Jamaica, culturally and politically. May grows to womanhood during a turbulent era of violence...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Carole rated it 4 of 5 stars

For 14 year old Ida Joseph growing up in Jamaica in the 1940's, Errol Flynn brings the glamour and glitz of Hollywood to the small town where she lives. She can see Navy Island (which is about a mile from the coast) from her house and she loves the stories associated with it of Captain Bligh and Pirates and buried Treasure and of a ghost that walks the island, Sabine.

Her father becomes friends with Flynn and Ida meets his several times over the course of the next few years and, when she is 16, t...more

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Jun 20, 2010 Claire (Just Another Bookworm) Denman rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book as it was featured a few years ago on "Richard and Judy's Book Club", and I was not dissappointed by it.

The story is separated into different parts, three is in 3rd person narrative and two in 1st person narrative in the forms of letters. The parts written as letters I enjoyed the most as they just focused on the thoughts and feelings of just May and Ida.

The two main characters are Ida and May. Ida is a teenager when the story begins, she is a real daddy's girl and is desperate...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Jamaica-born Margaret Cezair-Thompson, a creative writing instructor at Wellesley College and author of The True History of Paradise, knows her native island's physical, political, and social landscape well. Her historical epic, which spans the years between the end of World War II and the 1970s, sets a mother's and a daughter's coming-of-age stories against this lush country's tensions of race and class. While most critics thought that both imagined and real characters (think Tony Curtis and Ma

...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Susan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has an interesting premise. The author uses the real life fact of actor Errol Flynn living in Jamaica in the 1950s and creates a book based on what might have happened during that time. The main character, Ida, meets Flynn while a child and ends up having a brief affair with him as a teenager. Ida becomes pregnant by him and the rest of the book chronicles the life of Ida and her child in the setting of Jamaica and the later civil unrest there. Although the plot is intriguing, I almost...more

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Oct 19, 2009 Debbie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: richard-judy-book-club, work-reading-group

Set in Jamaica we follow Ida who will never forget her first love notorious womaniser Errol Flynn. When he eventually seduces her she mistakening thinks he loves her but sadly she is left carrying his unwanted child.

The pirate is Hollywood film star Errol Flynn and the pirates daughter is May, a fictional character. However Flynn in real life did buy an island in Jamaica and I think this is confusing to the reader. You are left wondering what is fact and what is fiction and should you just read...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, the characters were well developed and it taught me something about a place I know very little about. Most of the book takes place in Jamaica, specifically Port Antonio and Navy Island. It starts about 1946 and continues until the 1970's. It's about a teenage girl, Ida, who falls in love with a movie star, Errol Flynn. It's also about the child of that love, May. Parts of the story were very sad and things that happened were not always ideal and s...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Sarah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The title sounds fun, like the book could be full of swashbuckling adventure of a girl trying to follow her father's footsteps and find out more about who he really was... The tile is misleading, (at least about the fun part.)

The first part of the book was a bit hard to go through, so I did what I hardly ever do and skipped to the middle where I was quite easily able to pick up the story again and understand what was going on. This made me realize that I had just saved myself a bunch of time fro...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Carrie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I would have happily given this one or zero stars based on the story itself. I upped it to two because the parts that showcase Jamaica, the times and politics and racial/class struggles were interesting and enlightening, although I have no idea how factual they are. The story is insipid, boring, and completely unrealistic. It never reached the big dramatic point it seemed to be trying to reach and the only interesting story lines were never resolved or even explored. The mother and daughter main...more

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Jun 25, 2009 LindyLouMac rated it 4 of 5 stars

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I enjoyed this very readable family saga set on the beautiful tropical island of Jamaica, a perfect summer read.
The appearance of some real-life characters along with the Jamaican setting for this family saga gave the story for me the feel of reality. Errol Flynn arrives on the island when his yacht is shipwrecked and he soon decides to make a home for himself on the island. He sees the paradise of Jamaica as a chance for him to make a fresh start. He befr...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Rusty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some books seem to be slow starters for me. This was one of them but I grew to really enjoy the heroine, May, Errol Flynn's bastard daughter so much. Flynn plays a minor role in her life.

The story begins when Errol Flynn, the movie actor, encounters a storm at sea. He and his schooner, Zaca, limp into Jamaica where he meets Eli and Ida Joseph. From that moment, young Ida idolizes the actor and fancies herself in love with him. Flynn falls in love with Jamaica and returns often and eventually sed...more

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May 21, 2011 Michaela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own-a-copy

Ida Joseph is young when Errol Flynn arrives in Jamaica. She quickly becomes besotted with him and then he notices her too.
Set over a number of years, The Pirate's Daughter tells of Ida's romance with Flynn and its consequences, one of these being their daughter May.
May meets Errol just once but he makes an impact and is as much an influence in her life as he was in Ida's.
This is a story of two women and an actor who,courtesy of Margaret Cezair-Thompson is brought back to life.

As a fan of Erro...more

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Dec 07, 2008 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A good book, about an era of history I had never given thought to...the Jamaican revolution. It views the evolution of Jamaican society from post-WWII through the early 1970's, through the eyes of a hypothetical daughter of actor Erol Flynn. This story takes a factual account of Flynn's shipwreck off the Island of Jamaica, and weaves a colorful story based on what might have happened had he sired a child by a local young woman.

While the story is interesting, and the details are well written, I f...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this was my book club book. I wasn't sure to start with as I found it rather confusing because some of the story was supposedly true but it was a novel. I read in another review that the parts about Erroll Flynn came from his auto-biography. If thats that case I don't think he sounds as if he was too nice a person. He obviously had a 'thing' for young girls. Today they would call what he did 'grooming'!!!
I thought Jamaica was the star of the book. It sounded a wonderful place to live when the bo...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Alexandra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-council

The plot revolves around Jamaica, diversely spread from land to sea. This is the story of doomed youth of illegitimate generation not only in the country, but the whole world. May, Ida, Esme all suffered for not being a pure, neither a white nor a colored. The story is about unbalanced relationships in a world of Power. Life is lost in Lust and Ganja. Errol Flynn, the so called hero of the novel seeks only for "One Night Relationship". Obsessed by his reputation, he tries to recover his damaged...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Michelle L rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Through her narrator, the pirate's daughter of the title, the author writes the words 'grammar' and 'glamour' are related - signifying among other things enchantment and the casting of spells.
This is an enchanting human story, in a special little place,in a time of wealth and subsistence, glamour and naivete, and historic change, all seen and felt through the very varied and sympathetic central characters. They struggle with the question of responsibility to themselves and others - something...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Lisa James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, owned

This was a $3 buy at Big Lots :) Coupled with the easy price, this is a really easy to read book about colonial & post colonial Jamaica, with it's rich cultural history, & a great cast of characters spanning a couple of generations. The main characters, Ida & her daughter May's, lives are centered around the period of time that Errol Flynn was blown ashore on Jamaica when his ship was wrecked in a hurricane. He becomes May's father, although he never once acknowledges her.

I found it...more

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Aug 20, 2009 Francesca Fraser rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson

If you've never been to Jamaica, you will want to go after reading this novel. And if you've ever been, you will return. The setting alone becomes a magnificent character; living and breathing life into the love story as it unfolds. Cezair-Thompson introduces the port city of San Antonio, Jamaica to readers in an elegant and revering tone. She mixes factual history with tainted Hollywood history, giving the area a bit of notoriety and scandal all...more

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Sep 11, 2012 pdarnold rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-historic

Interesting story line, but a tragic tale to say the least! Your given (although mostly fictional) a glimpse of what it could have been like in Jamaica back in the 40's - 60's. This story sticks with me, making me think about it when I least expect. There really isn't anything here about pirates except in the form of a story that May is writing and that Errol Flynn like a pirate stole Ida's heart. There is the conflict of race, the strife of the British government giving Jamaica it's freedom, a...more

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Oct 21, 2011 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-bookshelf, everyone-s-choice-bc, book-challenge-2011

This book was up and down to me. It was a nice read but sometimes I was missing something. It needed more and less. Does that make sense? There were times when I wanted more information and then there were things that could have been left out and served no purpose. I loved the whole entwining Errol Flynn and Jamaica. How many stories are set in Jamaica? AND the best part was the Bob Marley was not mentioned until page 300. It was a shock! I thought for sure it would have been mentioned in the ti...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Chana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jamaican, historical-fiction

I liked this book quite a bit, both for the fiction and for the history of Errol Flynn and Jamaica. Admittedly, the best parts of the book were the non-fictionalized parts, but the fiction was well-written also.
What is true is that Erroll Flynn, on his way to Haiti, was blown off course by a hurricane and landed by mistake in Jamaica. He fell in love with the land and bought a small island right off the coast of Jamaica and lived there for many years. It is also true that the 1960's brought not...more

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About Margaret Cezair-Thompson

Margaret Cezair-Thompson is the author of a widely acclaimed previous novel, The True History of Paradise. Other publications include short fiction, essays, and articles in Callaloo, The Washington Post, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Graham House Review, and Elle. Born in Jamaica, West Indies, she teaches literature and creative writing at Wellesley College."

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“This is a story that could only have taken place in the tropics, where the climate draws sea rovers, pirates, and desperadoes from all corners of the world. They come and go, these adventurers, bedazzled and dazzling, and they leave women behind, lovers, who repeat outlandish tales, murmuring to themselves unheard, and if heard, not believed ...” — 3 people liked it

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