The Jolly Sailor

By Lucy Simister

The Jolly Sailor is a pirate comedy play for teenagers. It is based around a group of friends known as the Posse, among them is William who is the least adventurous. He had lead a sheltered life because that is just how his father, a customs officer, had arranged it - if William had known that his mother was Gracie O'Donnell - the Pirate Queen - his life might have been very different.  
 
On a trip to France to pick up documents William is kidnapped by the Cornish Captain Rumtug and his daughter Martha May and traded as a commodity with a price on his head. 
 
He become reunited with a family he never knew he had and everything changes for William things can never be the same again.  After a rough and tumble of events we arrive at the big finale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lucy Simister
• Release date: Dec 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781386536871

Lucy Simister

Lucy Simister has written several biographical books and her subjects include John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett and Charles Dickens. In 2012 she wrote the book for the children’s musical ‘Trouble at Mill,’ and in 2014 wrote and published the comedy play ‘The Jolly Sailor’ - full of piratey goings on based in Plymouth. She works for Children’s Amateur Theatre Society and can be found most weekends on the road playing in one of several bands. With her writing, drama and gigs life can get pretty busy!

Book preview

Also by Lucy Simister

Charles Dickens of the Westcountry

Elizabeth Barrett of Torquay

Charles Babbage from the Beginning

To Mr. John Keats of Teignmouth

The Jolly Sailor

Chateau Du Lac

Ginger Betty

The Soap Traders

Tickets Please

The Pioneer

About the author:

Lucy Simister has written biographies on John Keats, Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Her latest book, Charles Babbage from the beginning was published in 2015.

She is presently doing a winter season of talks on Charles Babbage throughout the UK. In the summer she plays the bodhran in a Celtic duo Hooligan’s Rule - having just spent five months playing in the Dordogne

In 2007 Lucy and her husband Tony wrote the musical Trouble at Mill which was performed in the same year by two musical theatre companies.

The Jolly Sailor

By Lucy Simister

William, Moorsy, Millicent, Janey and Nigel are friends. They meet regularly on a Saturday afternoon on the beach. William lives with his grandparents Joan and Abe Carter when not at boarding school. His father Mervin work for Customs and Excise.

His friends Moorsy and Millicent find they must travel to Roscoff in France to collect documents that give proof of their widowed mother’s ownership of their farm. It is agreed they should all go together for the adventure but William does not `do’ adventures.

They meet the crew of The Devonian under Captain Mary Reade and the crew of The Morveren under Captain Rumtug. Rumtug is offered a proposition he cannot refuse - kidnap William and deliver him to Ireland. All of which drags William kicking and screaming into an adventure that for him is an inconvenience and one big misunderstanding.

So having been sea sick and moaned to an excess they arrive at Roscoff. Nigel and William wait in nearby scrubland on the cliffs whilst Moorsy, Millicent and Janey walk into town to meet with their relatives at a solicitor’s. Rumtug and crew kidnap William leaving Nigel tied up and a little annoyed.

William finds himself on board a ship bound for Ireland and becomes acquainted with Martha May, Rumtug’s daughter and ship’s navigator. He changes from a nervous uncertain person to a confident young man almost overnight. By the time they arrive they have become close friends, a shame really as she had negotiated a good profit on escorting’ him to Ireland. William believes it is all case of mistaken identity and any time now they will all admit to their mistake giving him the chance to say he told them so

At the castle it is revealed to him that his kidnap was arranged by Alvise to prevent him being taken captive by the Pearson’s. The Pearson’s worked for a rival band of pirates the Clancies.

There he meets for the first time his grandparents and his mother Gracie O’ Donnell. So why all the cloak and dagger stuff? Well, because his mother is the notorious ‘Queen of the Pirates.’

Finding out that one’s mother is a notorious pirate and that his father, a customs officer knew and that it was kept a secret from him for his own safety is very disturbing Six weeks later William returns to find his friends on the beach…

but he is no longer the William Carter they once knew. William has an audacious plan to kidnap Martha May. Will life ever be the same again?

List of characters

William Carter: an educated young man, nervous of adventure.

Moorsy De Vere: a young educated man.

Millicent De Vere: home educated young lady.

Nigel: an enthusiast about