The Queen's Pirate by Iain Gately

Author : Iain Gately

Book : The Queen's Pirate

/ History , Nonfiction /

Publication date : November 5, 2026

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Blurb:

In June 1593, a ghostly ship drifted into an Irish harbour. Only 16 crewmen remained alive, and the deck was littered with the dead.

This was the melancholy homecoming of the ship Desire, one of a fleet of five that had left England two years before, fuelled by dreams of Spanish gold and the glory of exploring the globe. The expedition's captain, thirty-one-year-old Thomas Cavendish, had been lost in the South Atlantic and was presumed a victim of disease, mutiny, and an excess of ambition.

Yet just five years earlier, in 1588, things had been very different. Cavendish had returned aboard the Desire triumphant from circumnavigating the world in record time, having taken a Manila galleon and secured the largest haul of treasure ever to fall into English hands. Cavendish sailed the Desire to Greenwich and paid homage to Queen Elizabeth I, staging a lavish banquet for her on board.

In The Queen's Pirate, Iain Gately traces the career of this remarkable Elizabethan mariner from spectacular triumphs to great betrayals and an ill-fated final voyage. Gately expertly steers readers through Cavendish's tempestuous life, as he crafts the first biography of an unjustly neglected Elizabethan hero.

My thoughts:

As you already know, I have a pattern, even when I go out of my comfort zone of fantasy chonkers 😂🙈

And I love that I’m adding this book to my treasure trove of stories about intriguing people, because Cavendish was definitely one of them!

To be honest, although I’d heard of him, I wasn't familiar with his story (I can’t help but insert the Jack Sparrow meme "But you have heard of me" 😂😂😂), and I certainly didn't expect it to be so intricate and full of politics, blood-chilling moments, and so much more.

Everything is described in such meticulous detail that I can’t help but be in awe of how much work went into gathering all the bits and pieces of information.

I learned so many things that have been lost to history, which I didn't expect, and was pleasantly surprised to have my knowledge broadened.

Furthermore, I love when a book gets me so intrigued that, even when I finish it, it makes me Google for more information, driven by curiosity.

Give me more journeys around the globe and through history 😄❤️