Tag: writing

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The Real Pirates Behind the Films

bruceandholly

Even as a child, I would not have read Harry Potter. It’s just that I was not into wizards and magic spells. But give me Pirates! And that’s something else! It’s also why I watched all of the Pirates of the Caribbean films over the Christmas and New Year period. But did you know that each of those films had their roots in fact? I’ll prove it to you.

As a child I would lay in bed reading Edward Dingle’s ‘Sinbad’s Book of Pirates’, which was written in 1936 and had been given to me as a hand me down.

I’ve never been a pirate and wouldn’t be qualified to write a pirate book. Dingle was qualified because before becoming an author he had spent 22 years at sea and had survived five shipwrecks. In 1893, Dingle joined the salvage schooner Black Pearl to look for sunken treasure. They found the sunken wreck and strong box but we’re unable to move it. Strong gales then blew the ship away. A return voyage was wrecked near St Paul’s Island Australia. The crew survived but the Black Pearl was lost. They survived by eating rabbit, goat and fish before they were rescued. Eventually they did find treasure in another shipwreck. Does his story sound familiar?

Was it a coincidence that the name Black Pearl was used in Walt Disney’s first 2003 ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl’?

For me, the best pirate film was the 2011 ‘On Stranger Tides’ which again featured real historical characters and ships. The lead character in that film was Edward Teach, the famous Blackbeard and his ship, Queen Ann’s Revenge. Teach lived from 1680 to 1718 and operated around the West Indies and Britain’s then North American colonies.The Blackbeard name derived from his awesome appearance.So what about the mermaids?

Did mermaids actually exist? All we know, is that throughout most of human history, sailors believed in them. Mermaids were unlucky Omen. So what is it that I’m trying to say? That everything you write has to have an element of authenticity, Even if it’s fantasy fiction. It’s all about the research. About getting it right.

Postscript: in a moment of madness I went on to the Amazon site and ordered a used copy of Dingle’s 1936 book. It was as I’d remembered it. Almost word for word. And guess what? It is the World’s only surviving copy

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The Dangers of Eroding Jury Trials in Justice System

bruceandholly

It always disappoints me how easily intelligent people can be convinced to surrender ancient liberties to the State.

We saw it several years back in the ‘Simon Says’ world of the Covid lockdowns, when everyone had to jump to every Matt Hancock command.

“Put a mask on your face. Now clap your hands. And stand 6 ft apart. Do it when the Simon says and you will never be out.”

We’re seeing it again with David Lammy’s published proposals for the scrapping of jury trials save for the most serious charges of murder, manslaughter, rape and other public interest cases. But what is more worrying for me, from listening to phone-in programs, is the way people are beginning to buy into it. Not just retired police officers and prosecution barristers, who would be expected to support any proposal which would make their job easier because a prosecution would no longer have to explain it’s case and convince a panel of ordinary people. It also seems to rest on the premise that anyone who steals a mobile phone from a supermarket is already guilty and just playing the system by electing jury trial. The proposals also belittle the damage which any conviction involving dishonesty or violence can have on someone who’s trying to hold down a responsible job or career. It’s something which will stay with you for life.

When mention is made of the fact that more than 90% of criminal cases already start and end in the magistrate court, it must also be remembered that almost all of those cases involve guilty pleas, in which the magistrates’ only role is to assess the seriousness of the offence and an mitigating factors before determining sentence. Remember also that, unlike jurors, magistrates are not picked at random from amongst our communities but are people who put themselves forward for selection. They are not like you and I. It attracts a certain type of person.

One thing which I’ve always regretted is the whittling away of public involvement in our justice system, first in civil cases leading to the last defamation jury trials and now extending to judge only criminal trials. I don’t trust them. Nor should you.