Sir Gadabout Goes Overboard

Sir Gadabout

by Martyn Beardsley, Tony Ross (Illustrations)

Longbeard, a loathed and prickly pirate, and his cranky crew have been stirring up trouble in the English Channel. Luckily, Sir Gadabout is on a mission to save sailors from the scurvy scoundrels. But Sir Gadabout's never sailed a ship before and the pirates don't have much love for landlubbers. A shiver-yer-timbers sea story exploding with cannonballs and cutlasses and starring Camelot's crassest knight!

96 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2005

About the author

Martyn Beardsley has lived in Nottingham all his life. A civil servant for many years, he is now concentrating on his writing career. As well as being a children's author, one of his great passions is history. In 2002 he published a biography of Sir John Franklin, the Arctic explorer. A committed Buddhist, he is interested in reading, sport, keep-fit and yoga. Martyn Beardsley is married with one daughter.

Reviews

[Jon Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very silly book about one of King Arthur's knights Sir Gadabout. To say Sir Gadabout makes a hopeless knight would be unfair to hopeless knights. Yet somehow he manages to get out of scrapes relatively unscathed, like a medieval Frank Spencer. He is joined on his adventures by his well meaning but ineffective squire Herbert and a know it all talking cat Sidney Smith, who does his best to trip up the books hapless hero at any given opportunity.

In this tale Sir Gadabout goes to take on some pirates after angering the locals at the beach to prove his mettle. The story cracks on at a pace and likes to drop in nods to popular culture along the way. It is full of quick gags and funny turns and there are some nice Quentin Blake-esque illustrations throughout by Tony Ross.

A book that children will find fun and amusing but not one to cherish.