This was a really impressive read! I can’t believe I have never heard of Anne and Mary before.
Simon does a wonderful job of exploring not only the lives of these women, but the societal norms and beliefs at the time.
I loved the dedication, “Dedicated to all of the forgotten women who forged their own lives on land and sea.”. As a woman currently studying for a history degree, I find studying the lives of women extremely interesting. For years the subject has ignored women and the depths of their character and I am so glad that historians (especially female historians) are pushing to research and write about these forgotten legacies.
Really recommend this book to anybody with an interest in Pirates, lesser-known stories or women who break the societal code!
Thank you so much for the arc :)

This book was an excellent overview of everything we know about Anne Bonny and Mary Read. I’ve heard bits and pieces over the years about these two women, but never the complete story, or at least as complete as we can get it. The author is upfront in saying that some of the information, especially about Anne and Mary’s past, is largely theoretical and can’t be confirmed. The text was easy to read and very interesting, though some parts seemed to be repetitive or contradictory to other parts. But overall I enjoyed learning lot only about these two historical figures but also piracy in general. I’m sure I will use it in future writing projects.

My thanks to Pen & Sword History for granting my wish for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Pirate Queens: The Lives of Anne Bonny & Mary Read’ by Rebecca Alexandra Simon in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first full-length biography of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Rebecca Simon is a historian and a world-leading expert on pirates, their lives and their roles in colonies and communities.

In ‘Pirate Queens’ she presents details of their backgrounds, their brief careers as pirates and their legacy that has continued for 300 years, including literature and even television series.

She is open about the fact that the biographical information about the women contained in
Captain Charles Johnson’s 1724 ‘A General History of the Pyrates’, was likely fictionalised. She seeks to determine how much was fact and how much was fiction while presenting what is known to be true from primary historical sources. Simon also examines the social context of women in the early eighteenth century.

Having recently read Daniel Defoe’s ‘Moll Flanders’ (1722) I was pleased that Simon noted the similarities between Moll’s fictional biography and the information contained in Johnson’s work on Bonny and Read. There has been claims that Captain Johnson was a pen-name of Defoe, though this is disputed.

Overall, I found ‘Pirate Queens’ fascinating and it proved very readable. It also contains the kind of supplemental material that I expect in a serious work of nonfiction: appendixes of historical documents, including the record of ‘The Tryal of Jack Rackham and Other Pyrates’, notes for each chapter, a bibliography of primary, secondary, and web sources and an index.

This book explores the lives of two of the most famous and, perhaps, infamous, women pirates in history: Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Alas, there is a lot of information that is not known. Though Bonny and Read’s history has been more documented than most because of the court records produced for their trials.

Simon has created scenarios, based on research of the lives of women at this time, of what their stories might have been like, the circumstances of their birth, childhood, etc. to fill the gaps for the information that is not provided in court records and other sources. Simon also explores the bias and messages that male writers expressed in the accounting of these women’s stories. She attempts to put these two women’s lives in context and express the actions they took to take control of their lives in a time when women’s lives were very restricted and constrained.

It is a very interesting book. I only knew the bare facts of these women’s lives and it is astonishing they made such an impact for the short time they were actually pirates, only a few months. Some parts are repetitive but it is well written. It provides a part of the picture of pirates that is usually overlooked. Because, there may not have been many women pirates, there were some and other women who lived on ships. Overall, it is definitely worth a read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Pirates are historically difficult to pin down and unfortunately Rebecca Alexandra Simon's Pirate Queens cannot overcome the massive holes in the lives of her subjects.

Pirate Queens is a dual biography of the most famous women pirates of all time, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Simon meticulously recounts their lives from their childhoods to their piracy trials. Simon clearly knows pirates and brings her expertise to this book.

However, the things which make Bonny and Read so tantalizing as book subjects are also what makes them so difficult to write about. Large portions of their lives are written by other people of dubious viewpoints. They both rocked the boat (yes, pun intended) which made many (male) historians go out of their way to tarnish their reputations and make them cautionary tales. Simon is left to try and make a compelling narrative of very little trustworthy material. The result is a book which is big on facts, but low on emotions and insight. I noticed too often specific thoughts or ideas popping up verbatim throughout the book (e.g. multiple mentions that a boy child was preferable to a girl child out of wedlock) as a symptom of filling out the story as much as possible.

I do not doubt Simon's expertise on pirates or ability to write an engaging book. I just think Anne Bonny and Mary Read's lives are too lightly documented for a full length, non-fiction treatment.

(This book was provided to me as an advance copy by Netgalley and Pen & Sword books. The full review is posted to HistoryNerdsUnited.com.)

This book was a thoroughly interesting read, it combined many of my favourite genres and themes in books; History and female experiences. Add in the fact that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were released in my early teens (and I was obsessed) and I was instantly sold on this title. From the opening chapters of this book, it gives historical context to the nature of female pirates, from the ancient world, through to our books personalities of focus; Anne and Mary (Though it would have been nice to have a brief nod to another incredibly successful female pirate Ching Shih). From these beginning chapters, the audience is firmly engaged in the subject matter, without assumed prior knowledge and without patronising overtones. It also takes care to acknowledge the primary sources used to inform the biographies in the book, following the conventions of a historical text and the issues of accuracy and reliability evident in these sources. The author is very clear and upfront about how they have had to speculate and hypothesise to fill some of the gaps in the historical narrative in order to present a clear and coherent set of biographies.
The text is written in an engaging format which weaves facts into an engaging account, instead of a dry series of dates and facts. It was formatted in a user friendly manner with chapters of a decent size that were not overly intimidating (as some history and non-fiction books can be). My only criticism of this book is that at times it could be a bit repetitive.
Overall, this was an informative and interesting read that I recommend to anyone with an interest in piracy in the 18th Century, or the experiences of women in History. Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This was a super fascinating tale. It had me ready to stick one boob out and become a pirate! I just don’t think my job nor my family would love that

i was very intrigued by the title and description of this book, female pirates have always interested me! anne and mary are no exception to that.

now, while i do realize that some parts of this book probably aren't true (or rather are assumptions, ficionalizations) due to lack of any credible information about them, it still makes for an entertaining read.

but one thing i would point out for sure & that did affect my reading experience was rather juvenile writing - some expressions and wording of certain things just felt a bit wonky. sometimes the author also repeats themselves a lot, which can be a bit annoying at timee. but honestly none of these flaws are that major and i think that they could definitely be fixed with the help of a good editor :)

The facts mixed with some speculation do make for an interesting read although I feel like this book could have been condensed quite a bit.
The first four chapters drag by. It is excessively wordy and repetetive. A few examples of this are:
Stating that illegitimate sons could inherit property twice within the space of a few paragraphs.
Stating that Anne's mother died of a fever and then stating a few paragraphs later that she became ill and died.
Also, how many times must if he stated that Mary and Anne fought with their hair flowing freely and their breasts out?

NB: free ARC received for honest review

A brisk biography of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, covering both their lives before piracy and then their brief but notorious careers as part of Jack Rackham's pirate crew. The author is frank about the lack of primary documents about the two, and there is likely some - possibly significant - amount of fictionalisation in the accounts we <i>do</i> have, and is generally clear about what content is the most reliable.
The text is occasionally guilty of repeating certain information - for instance, the fact that the pair would expose their breasts in combat is mentioned at least six times - but that's a relatively minor weakness.

I have always been a fan of the stories of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. This account makes in obvious how many of those retellings we're based on fiction. Which is frustrating, because as the account shows, the history we can find is fascinating. Both woman are portrayed through historical records to be intelligent, vibrant, and charismatic.
I greatly enjoyed the read.

I remember first reading about Anne Bonny and Mary Read in A General History of the Pyrates by maybe Daniel Defoe. I'm glad to see someone take the time to delve into the history and backgrounds of these two unique women pirates and I was happy to learn so much more about them.

I enjoyed this book as I believe it showcased female pirates in a strong, lethal way, uncommon in pirate novels, as male pirates are often discussed more.
I often prefer fiction to non-fiction, however this topic dies interest me and therefore though it did take me longer to read than fiction would have, I still enjoyed it.
However, I do think the book was slightly drawn out and could have been condensed. Nevertheless, a good factual book I would recommend.

I have always known the names Anne Bonny and Mary Read, but I really didn't know much beyond the fact that they were female pirates. This book was a great background and history of the available information around them and I liked that the author made clear areas that were speculation and potential biases from the historians and works this one pulls from. Overall an enjoyable read that I learned a lot from!

I really enjoyed reading this book as I have always had a slight fascination with pirates and especially women pirates. I liked the writing style it was easy to read with a good flow and didn't feel to textbooky as some non fiction can. I did notice some areas that could have been developed slightly more or have more information in them, but, because these were real women who had real shenanigans and were revered and reviled a lot of the information about them is missing at best and biased at worst and so, this didn't take anything away from the book in my opinion. I would definitely read more by the author.

Original Review Posted to Goodreads

I really wanted to read this book because it's a story about the two most famous female pirates! I was so excited to dive into an adventure. I will say it was well written, however I found myself a little annoyed because a lot of the information on these infamous pirates is scattered and I found the author attempting to fill in the spaces with extra info, and that's not bad I just noticed it. I would recommend to readers who just enjoy a tale of female pirates!

Thank you NetGalley and Pen & Sword for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review