*3.5 Stars*

It's been a while but this was an interesting read but at times it did drag on at points. As a lot of the information on the two women that is unconfirmed or rewritten by male historians, which is noted the sources.

Pirate Queens: The Lives of Anne Bonny & Mary Read is a fun, if imperfect, biography of two of the most famous female pirates who are nevertheless not very well-known at all. Rebecca Alexandra Simon is a fairly good storyteller--she manages to paint a fascinating picture of both Anne and Mary's childhoods, adolescence, and careers as pirates, even if she admits that most of the information available about the two women is suspect. Rather than the hardened, grizzled Sapphic duo that readers may be expecting, Simon makes a compelling argument that Anne and Mary were driven more by romanticism than cynicism. They chose a life of piracy over something more stable, preferring adventure to tedium, and had a knack for falling madly in love with the men they encountered at sea.

Where Pirate Queens fares worse is on analysis. Simon repeats several sentences, word for word, only a few lines apart, on multiple occasions (it was the golden age of piracy, Anne and Mary bared their breasts to intimidate their enemies, etc.) This has a plodding effect on the prose, as if the author were trying to meet a minimum word count requirement, or was at a loss as to how to transition to the next topic. There's some basic analysis on challenging gender roles and how their stories have appealed to women over time, but it rarely ever scratches beneath the surface. Then there's also the way the narrative frames Anne Bonny and Mary Read as heroines. Although Simon does pay lip service to the terror pirates inflicted on their victims, it's easy to forget that these were two women who made a living off of robbing and murdering innocent people. Pirates may be fun to read about, but that doesn't mean they should be valorized.

Regardless, Pirate Queens is still a worthwhile read both for its accessibility and for the light it shines on two historical figures whose names may have been enshrined in history, but not necessarily their stories.

Pirate Queens is a fascinating book about female pirates. It's a subject I never knew anything about, and I enjoyed reading this. It's very well researched and written in an exciting manner.

Many thanks to Rebecca Alexandra Simon, NetGalley, and Pen & Sword for this copy.

I received this book for free from netgalley for an honest review.

Really well thought-out book with amazing characters and excellent setting.

I’m both a massive history nerd and have a bit of a fondness for pirates because of a teen hyperfixation on Pirates of the Caribbean so I’ll read any book about pirates that I can get my hands on!

As such, I’ve come across Bonny and Read before but only as casual mentions so I was super curious to find out more about them! Considering the lack of information on them, I think the author did a brilliant job of putting their lives to paper and doing so in a way that’s readable and makes brilliant use of the sources available! (Sorry, my university brain is switched on right now!)

It was certainly interesting to see the authors take on piracy for women and what could have driven them to such a life!

Fans of historical pirates are almost certainly aware of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two of the most notorious female pirates in history and myth. While the author admits parts of the historical narrative are exaggerated, there is enough to learn by reading between the lines. Their intertwined stories are fascinating and I encourage others to check out this historical analysis.

Being obsessed with pirates from a young age, there isn't much I don't already know about Anne Bonney and Mary Read. However, Rebecca Alexandra Simon delivers a fun read, delving into all of the scant facts and many conjectures around these two pirates. What I especially loved is how Simon sets the record straight on female experience, pirates, pirate law, and the ongoing, kind of problematic romanticization we have of a fairly notorious and brutal way of life.

Every time I get the chance to learn more about a pirate I jump in joy despite knowing that most of the book will be full of speculations and narration coming from vague historical records. Even so, with all the hardship of doing historical research, especially over figures with so little documentation and a certain amount of fiction that contributes to the confusion around them, Simon did a wonderful job recreating the lives and experiences of Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

The author starts with Anne and Mary’s mothers, or what was possible to find about them and what could be possible considering their context in history, creating scenarios for how things could’ve been. Simon does the same for Anne and Mary, our protagonists themselves, and each of their lives joining piracy and then finding each other – until the very end, when Mary died in prison, while waiting to give birth, and the possible years Anne could have lived after that.

While these brief scenes dramatizing the events in their lives are interesting and well-thought, I think what Simon did best (besides the extensive research, of course) was making clear how Anne and Mary were (or might’ve been) affected by the views on gender during their time, as well as the impact they (and the news that circulated about them) had on women in the english-speaking world. This desire for freedom in the middle of decades when women had few rights was strong, and despite pirates and their inevitable deaths being treated as warnings – don’t step out of line, don’t join life at sea –, inevitably they created curiosity and interest, especially with the growing access to printed papers.

Simon crafted a book that flows so well through these women’s lives that when you get to the conclusion, you want to go back and see more of these pirates, know who else they might have interacted with, what else they could have done and what impacts they (and other gender defying ladies) could have caused. Of course the author doesn’t skip mentioning the big fiction around Anne Bonny, Black Sails, despite the lack of Mary Read in the show, which demonstrates how the myth around these two is still alive and strong.

As a bonus, there’s transcripts of the trial papers and documents like that by the end of the book, along with illustrations and scans.

Finally, more attention to the women pirates who were a part of history! This was a unique, interesting read. I would especially like this on audiobook, but it is nice to be able to go back to parts I read before.
This is well researched and I really enjoyed reading! I usually do not go for pirate biographies, but was interested in some that weren't the normal Blackbeard of Captain Cook. Glad for Pirate Queens!

I love this book, it's entertaining and insightful.

I have seen so many books out there that are all about the male pirates that sailed the 'seven' seas and yet it is very little out there about the woman who took on the role, that is until now!

I had known about Anne Bonney and Mary Read before reading this, these two women are easily the most (in)famous of this small group of female pirates who were at the top of their game in the height of the pirate era. I wouldn't call them heroines or anything, but they had huge amounts of pluck and courage to take on a man's world as they did. I have watched so many documentaries about these two women so I thought I knew their stories, but this book really opened my eyes to how extraordinary these women were, they may have only had a few precious months at the top of the pirate world (after all pirates didn't have a long life-span) but it was their backgrounds and the history of how they became so notorious that fascinated me, they were just two very ordinary women who chose to take up the sail. They both had very unconventional childhoods (which explains the unconventional women they became) both deciding at young ages that they could further in life or what they wanted by dressing as boys.

I loved that they both joined a pirate ship with non-other than Captain Jack Rackham otherwise known as 'Calico Jack', here they weren't in their usual boys' dress, but serving and sailing as women and now as esteemed pirates.

I have to applaud the huge amount of research that the author; Rebecca Alexandra Simon has done for this book, something I can imagine can't have been easy especially as the historical records and information would have been limited, so bravo to the author for the immense amount of hard work put into this book.

The book is incredibly well-written, it's insightful and knowledgeable, plus very easy to read (which is always a bonus). The author has brought Mary and Anne to life, she has documented their early lives and their careers as pirates, plus noting their hardships and how they became the ruthless pirate queens they became. They may not have reigned the seas for long, but their lives and exploits still entertain us today, we will never know 'who' they were but we can learn the facts and speculate.

For a few short months, two women made up part of a pirate crew. The careers of Anne Bonny and Mary Read came to an abrupt end when they were captured and tried for their crimes. How much of what we know is fact versus fiction?

I have read a few fictional pirate tales in the past, so I was fascinated to learn about this biography. The author lays out what facts history provides, especially the kind of life many women would have lived at the time. The author uses A General History of the Pyrates, a book written four years after the trials of Bonny and Read, legal documents relating to women, their recorded public trial in The Tryal of Jack Rackham and Other Pyrates, and newspapers to try to piece together a logical narrative of how these women lived.  

It was a bit disappointing to learn that there are not that many facts known about where Anne Bonny and Mary Read came from or even how they came to choose the life of a pirate. Even Captain Charles Johnson's History of Pyrates is most likely fiction with little no evidence to support the tale he wove. Still, it was an interesting read and well-written.

Readers looking for information on two pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy will probably enjoy it.

I received a free eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I did enjoy reading this book, but it feels unpolished. The subject matter is fascinating - women pirates and their lives - but most of it is speculative. The writing style was basic and often repetitive; sometimes it seemed as though the author was trying to reach a word count quota. However, the stories of Anne Bonny and Mary Read are compelling, even if they are partially made up. Mary Read's story in particular was fascinating, as she spent much of her life disguised as a man and went through a lot on her way to becoming a pirate.

Overall I don't think this book was ready for publication, but with more work and better editing, I can see Rebecca Alexandra Simon coming out with some really wonderful narrative nonfiction in the future.

Many thanks to both NetGalley and to Pen & Sword for letting me see an advance reader's copy of Pirate Queens: the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

Pirates have always been close to my heart, and I do love to read books about them – fiction and non-fiction. Therefore, I was delighted to see this book coming out from Pen & Sword.

Pirate Queens is a hypothetical biography of two infamous pirates, who were more likely famous due to the fact that they were women. The story is hypothetical because there is not a lot actually known about them. What the author has done here is collect together what is known, added to it some likely scenarios using real lives at the time as a basis, and hypothesised the missing bits in between.

The best bits for me were all things pirate. I didn't care that they were women, I was simply interested in their likely stories because they were pirates. I liked the mix of fact and fiction, and I liked the pictures. I was surprised that these two women were only pirates for two months. But then, pirates did have a very short life expectancy.

As far as I was concerned, there was a bit too much repetition in this book, such as the fact that Bonny and Read were women and especially the continued reference to them baring their breasts. I also wasn't keen on the American English from a British publisher. But if this book's main target audience is American, then that would probably explain the grammar and spellings used.

There were several typographical errors that should have been cleaned up in a good proofread. However, I did enjoy reading it.

Four stars.

My thanks to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read may not have been the only female pirates who operated in what is known as the Golden Age of Piracy (1650–1730; dates debated), but they were amongst the best known. From inspiring ballads and having books written about them to other forms of popular culture like a recent Netflix docuseries, and even a song, these daring ladies are a source of fascination even centuries after their death. While there had been female pirate before their time, many quite as powerful and ruthless, their predecessors were different in that they came from more powerful positions having been wives mostly of chieftains or rulers who took over when widowed and turned to piracy. But Bonny and Read came from far more ordinary backgrounds, but still took to the seas. Their career as active pirates though, was rather short-lived, lasting only two months.

I first came across these two audacious ladies when I read a book called Meet the Georgians by Robert Peal last year which took one through the colourful Georgian period by examining the lives of twelve sets of characters, men and women who lived interesting, and in most cases, unconventional lives. So of course, when this book came up, I was keen to pick it up.

In Pirate Queens: The Lives of Anne Bonny & Mary Read, author Rebecca Alexandra Simon traces the lives of these two extraordinary women who chose to live differently from others. Surprisingly while Anne Bonny and Mary Read may have found much space in popular culture, information available about them is very limited, and much of it, aside from the transcripts of their trial when their band was arrested, likely fictionalised. So, Simon certainly had a tough job before her. Relying on available accounts as well as additional material on associated places and aspects, she puts together a portrait of their lives. Unconventional childhoods where both were at some point dressed as boys, Anne’s emigration to America with her father and initial experience on a pirate ship with her husband, James Bonny, Mary’s time as a soldier (in the guise of a boy, not as uncommon as one would think), subsequent marriage, widowhood and having to rely on her own devices once again, to both women joining on as crew aboard the ship of Pirate Captain Jack Rackham or Calico Jack, whom Anne married, and where they were no longer in disguise but lived and fought as women, to their arrest and trial just two short months after the start of their careers, are explored in the various chapters of this book. It also goes on to consider their legacy, their treatment and representation in books and other media from their own time where their activities were looked at from a male gaze to more current depictions. Simon also reflects on the question of why the pirate life with all its hardships and attendant dangers would have appealed to these women, what really may have attracted them to it.

Simon, who is a leading expert on pirates, and holds a PhD from King’s College on the public execution of pirates and British supremacy in the Atlantic world, certainly gives us a well written and very readable account of Anne Bonny and Mary Read’s stories. While she brings up conflicting accounts and highlights debatable aspects, she does gives us a smoothly flowing account that reads like a continuous/unbroken story. As mentioned, and as she discusses herself, Simon has worked with limited material, much of it of doubtful authenticity in putting together the lives of these women, supplemented by more solid material on related aspects. Therefore, there must be and indeed is, a fair amount of speculation in the book. And one can’t hold this against her, since she has made the best of what is available. However, one has to also take it as that, a story of the two that we can’t know is really theirs. A couple of things that did bother me, however, were the speculations as to how the two women would have felt about particular things or situations, and more so, the small imagined conversation she weaves into one of the initial chapters which I felt didn’t really belong in an academic text.

I found rather interesting her discussion of the possible attractions of pirate life for women, which Simon approaches in current day terms. On a pirate ship, every one lived on more or less equal terms, exercising a form of democracy (everyone could vote on captains), and for women, whether under the guise of men or as women (as was the case for Anne and Mary), it meant a life lived to the fullest away from the shackles of social convention and morality, earning for themselves where limited or no opportunities were present as women in society, and having complete agency over every part of themselves. For the two, with their unconventional early lives with disinclination on Anne’s part to be tied up by social norms and necessity for Mary, this did become an attractive choice, one in which their femininity became their weapon rather than an impediment.

I quite enjoyed reading this book, even though one can’t help feeling that tinge of disappointment as one will never really know who Anne and Mary were or their actual stories.

3.75 stars

I had read about Anne Bonney and Mary Read in Meet The Georgians, and they piqued my interest, so I was keen to read this one when it was offered. Very little is actually known about the pair and so a lot of information is conjecture, and in some cases, possibly fiction. However, the author is honest about this. What is interesting is the way she places their lives into the context of the time they were living, and the average female experience, giving us the reasons why the tough and dangerous life of a pirate might have an appeal for these two women. I hadn't realised that they had actually been pirates for such a short space of time.

A very readable history, but a lot of the information given should be taken with a pinch of salt, and maybe that's not a bad thing, endorsing them with a touch of mystery.

*Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a review copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

The author only had just a couple of main, contemporaneous sources in which to create this book, I felt that she did her best in framing the world in which Anne Bonny and Mary Read lived. Creating a narrative out of the limited materials available would have been tough for any author so the sometimes speculative nature of the writing was well done and kept me interested while still utilizing the historical sources and doing them justice.

This is a wonderful book that gives you fascinating insight into female pirates. I grew up in an area that historically had strong links with piracy so I was delighted to read this. The writing is enjoyable and not too dense, it's amusing to read, and I would recommend this to others.

This book was really informative. I wanted to learn about pirates - which I did! And more than just the two female pirates this book is about! It's very, very obvious the amount of research that went into this book. However, it's very poorly edited. There are so many misspellings, for starters, but it also bothered me how repetitive it was at times. Very cool and accessible, but needed a lot more editing.

I'm trepidatious when I start history related books because some authors have joyless, buzzkill writing styles. I'm relieved to say that this book was pretty decent. To those that have followed my reading habits in the past you'll already know I love things Pirate-related. This book feels like a conversation amongst friends. Or a well-done interview. The information, or lack of information, pertaining to Anne and Mary was casually presented in an easily digestable way. The author attempts to fill in the gaps in an educated manner. When there's discussion about Pirates, there's always the same things being talked about. After awhile, what is enticing about them wears off. What the author manages to do here is bring life back to these people. No longer are they names on pages. They felt tangible. Fresh, real. Exciting.

My thanks to Pen & Sword History and the author for an ARC of this book.

Due to a move that took more of my attention than I originally planned for it took me a while to get around to this ARC. I am leaving a more than fair 3-star review despite my reluctant choice to DNF this book. I only got to about 20% in this book before I decided this might just not be the book for me.

There were several instances of observations that needed further contextualization, citation, and exploration. I realize this book is aimed at a popular history audience, but that does not excuse the lack of proper citation. If no one can trace your sources, they can't argue against any points you make within your writing or even look into the sources themselves for their own research.

As with most women from history, the author was left grasping straws from fictionalized accounts about these women and it made for less than solid grounds for her argument. I simply struggled to separate conjecture from trustworthy source material.

I don't think this is a "bad" book, but I do feel like there are some serious holes in the arguments taking place that need to be reconsidered in light of the lack of historical evidence at hand. I also feel that some of the points made need to have better source citations behind them.