WINNER OF THE ESSENCE LITERARY AWARD IN FICTION
In 1946, Hollywood’s most famous swashbuckler, Errol Flynn, arrived in Jamaica in ... read full description
In 1946, Hollywood’s most famous swashbuckler, Errol Flynn, arrived in Jamaica in ... read full description
reviews
Aug 19, 2008
Shannon
rated it: 
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 Id More...
This is the story of Id More...
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Feb 20, 2008
Amy
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*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 struggl
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Dec 07, 2008
Stephanie
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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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Nov 03, 2010
Tracey
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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 More...
The real star of the book was Jamaica itself and I learned a lot about this country More...
Sep 21, 2008
Julie
rated it: 
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.
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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Mar 02, 2009
Carole
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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 More...
Her father becomes friends with Flynn and Ida meets his several times over the course of the next few years and, when More...
Jun 20, 2010
Claire (Just Another Bookworm)
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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 More...
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 More...
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Feb 05, 2009
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
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Jan 26, 2011
Susan
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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
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Oct 19, 2009
Debbie
rated it:
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 y More...
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 y More...
Aug 03, 2011
Sarah
rated it: 
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 bunc More...
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 bunc More...
Jun 25, 2009
LindyLouMac
rated it:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6606...
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 More...
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 More...
Dec 26, 2010
Chana
rated it:
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 b More...
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 b More...
Aug 02, 2011
I didn't have any particularly high expectations of this book and I wasn't wrong. Celebrity isn't my thing at all so I have hesitated over starting this for some months, merely from knowing that Errol Flynn features in it. In the end there wasn't much else available. I didn't feel it went anywhere and none the main characters had any endearing features. From my point of view the most interesting issues were those relating to the State of Emergency in Jamaica in the 1970s. The references have mad
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May 21, 2011
Michaela
rated it:
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 lif More...
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 lif More...
Dec 07, 2008
Jennifer
rated it:
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 wr More...
While the story is interesting, and the details are well wr More...
Mar 13, 2011
Mary
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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 More...
I thought Jamaica was the star of the book. It sounded a wonderful place to live when More...
Oct 17, 2011
Michelle L
rated it:
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 - so More...
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 - so More...
Nov 28, 2011
Lisa
rated it:
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...
I found it More...
Aug 20, 2009
Francesca
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
Oct 21, 2011
Donna
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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
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Oct 26, 2011
Bree
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Ida is just a young girl in 1946 when Hollywood swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn ends up in Jamaica after a storm sends his boat off course. Her father, a taxi driver, ends up driving Flynn around and then moves into real estate, helping Flynn purchase a Jamaica home when he falls in love with the island. Flynn is in and out of Ida’s life for years and they fall into a relationship when she is still just a teenager and in school.
Ida has dreams of marrying Flynn (who is already marrie More...
Ida has dreams of marrying Flynn (who is already marrie More...
Jan 06, 2011
Graceann
rated it:
Margaret Cezair-Thompson gives us a mini-lesson in Jamaican upheaval, both political and personal.
The fictional premise of The Pirate's Daughter is that, when Errol Flynn ends up in Jamaica, he loves it so much that he buys property there and spends a significant portion of his final years there. This much is actually true. He had a home in Port Antonio and owned a hotel; he was a big reason that tourism flourished around that time.
Cezair-Thompson then expands the premi More...
The fictional premise of The Pirate's Daughter is that, when Errol Flynn ends up in Jamaica, he loves it so much that he buys property there and spends a significant portion of his final years there. This much is actually true. He had a home in Port Antonio and owned a hotel; he was a big reason that tourism flourished around that time.
Cezair-Thompson then expands the premi More...
Nov 18, 2008
Sherri
rated it:
At first this book seemed to be interesting and in some places it was, but then it got repetitious. The story rambled on and on. There were 13 CD's to listen to and by the end I was glad I was done. The story began in the late 1940's and was set in Jamaica. Errol Flynn came to the island, met a woman named Ida when she was only 13 I think. After a few years he had an affair with Ida (I think she was only 14 or 15 at the time) and she became pregnant with his child. He never married her, bu
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May 28, 2008
Taylor
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When movie star Errol Flynn is shipwrecked on the island of Jamaica, no one could have known what kind of impact he would have. The Pirate’s Daughter, written by Margaret Cezair-Thompson, is an engrossing story about a family of Jamaican natives through its generations and throughout the island’s fight for independence.
When Eli becomes friends with the infamous actor Errol Flynn, Eli’s daughter, Ida, gets to know him and soon falls in love. Errol is not immune to her girlish charm and b More...
When Eli becomes friends with the infamous actor Errol Flynn, Eli’s daughter, Ida, gets to know him and soon falls in love. Errol is not immune to her girlish charm and b More...
Jan 16, 2008
Jane
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Jan 22, 2008
Tisa
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I love the concept and the form of this book: A fictional speculation (Errol Flynn's illegitimate bi-racial daughter) on a factual situation (Errol Flynn's exploits in Jamaica). Perfect for an Xmas gift card purchase, and right up my alley.
Margaret Cezair-Thompson does well with the big-picture landscape of Jamaica, both political and social, particularly around race, class, self-determination and colonialism, but for my taste as a reader, her rendering of character doesn't develop More...
Margaret Cezair-Thompson does well with the big-picture landscape of Jamaica, both political and social, particularly around race, class, self-determination and colonialism, but for my taste as a reader, her rendering of character doesn't develop More...
Aug 08, 2011
Missy
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I really expected to hate this book and put off reading it until i had really nothing else to read. Well it turned out to be quite a little read, i really enjoyed it. Initially i was put off the Errol Flynn fanfiction-esque plot, and to be honest dont see why it was necessary to have him portrayed in it when someone based on him would have just been as fine. After all isn't Nigel based on Ian Fleming? Nevertheless a really enjoyable holiday read, good yarn. Wouldnt mind reading it again!
Mar 12, 2009
Janellyn51
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I really did enjoy this book. I did like all the Errol Flynn stuff and since Mutiny On the Bounty is one of my all time favorite books, I liked the references to Captain Bligh and since Reggae is one of my favorite kinds of music, I loved those references too! It's well written, well researched, and a great story that spans generations...What a wicked Cad Flynn was and all though the story is fictitious...I think Ms. Cezair-Thompson pretty much nailed his character!
Nov 19, 2009
Noreen
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I found this a tad bit melancholy at first but the backdrop of Jamaica definitely brightened things up and it definitely finished with more of a flourish than it began. It's set in Jamaica between 1946-1976 around Errol Flynn's escape there and he makes for an interesting case study. Very sympathetic protagonists (mother & daughter) and very captivating account of the turmoil in Jamaica during their struggle with independence. All in all an enjoyable read.
