This novel was published in 2006 as Anne Bonney: My Pirate Story (and had “with Katherine Williams” on the cover) and in 2007 as Pirate Spirit: The Adventures of Anne Bonney (credited only to Jeffery S. Williams).
Anne is born in June 1700. Anne’s parents are William McCormac and Peg Brannan. William’s wife is named Catherine and they live in Kinsale. William houses Peg and Anne with Peg’s brother Edward, who is upheld as a saintly paragon and idolized by Anne, who meanwhile is rotely bullied at school, gets into fights, and is ultimately kicked out. The family moves to America when Anne is 11. En route Edward rescues Anne from a sexual assault and then rescues her when she falls overboard, just in case you didn’t think he was the greatest guy ever.
Mary Reade’s older brother is named Jacob, who is 15 months older than her. Her mother’s husband dies in a storm. Over time the mother goes insane and forces Mary to keep dressing as a boy. Mary joins the military when she is 16. Her first husband is named either Duncan or John Reade, who is attracted to her when he thinks she is a man. When they are running their inn, which is called the Three Horses, a man sexually assaults Mary and kills John in a duel, four months after they got married. Mary murders the guy and burns the inn down with their bodies inside.
Jack Rackham grows up in Wales and learns sailing from his father. He serves an apprenticeship for navigation on a privateer. He deserts in New York and joins a pirate crew.
In Charles Towne William grows rice and tobacco. Peg dies when Anne is 13. Even though Anne is “astounded” to witness her father abusing his enslaved servants, and says she feels sorry for them, she nevertheless stabs one of them, Maggie, for being sarcastic. Maggie runs outside and Edward appears in the doorway to comfort Anne with his words of wisdom: “I do not believe this is the life for you. This life will make you homely and hopeless before your years”. LMFAO. Edward apparently watched the whole thing but didn’t intervene to stop Anne from STABBING SOMEONE!!!! Then he feels bad FOR HER! Anne says she wants more than Charles Towne can offer her. FFS, I wonder if Maggie does too.
Anne and her father are shopping in the city when Blackbeard blockades the harbor, which he does in consort with Charles Vane. Jack goes on shore to collect the ransom. At some point Jack Rackham was on Blackbeard’s crew as a navigator, but Blackbeard ordered him to sail with Charles, whose quartermaster he is at the time of the blockade. Jack goes on shore long enough for Anne to see him from a distance.
The man Anne beats up is named Frederick Jones. She meets James Bonney at the execution of Stede Bonnet when she is 17. James is an idealistic pirate wannabe who has romanticized piracy based on reading about it. William tells Anne that James is an indentured servant. Edward of course tells Anne that marrying James is a bad idea, but also gives her his blessing. They get married after knowing each other for less than a month, and have sex while reciting biblical verse to each other. They move to the Bahamas, where Woodes Rogers is the governor, but he actually lives in Jamaica for some reason, so James goes there when he starts working for him. While he’s gone a random guy tries to attack Anne but backs off when someone tells him James is a spy, which is apparently a daily grind.
Blackbeard, Charles Vane, and Calico Jack spend some time in Nassau, but Anne doesn’t meet them. Jack is quartermaster on Charles’s ship when Blackbeard is killed, and they are nearby enough to see it. After Blackbeard dies they chase Lt Maynard but he gets away. They leave and are in Nassau in May 1718, which is when Woodes Rogers arrives and they sail away. Jack is made captain after a mutiny. Jack returns to Nassau while his ship, the Vanity, is being careened there. He plans to take a pardon from the governor. Anne dresses in James’s clothes to hang around listening to Jack talk. Jack sees through her disguise and not only knows she is a woman but also James’s wife. They start sleeping together while James is away. Jack and his crew apply for pardons but have to wait for a response from Rogers.
James finds out Anne cheated on him and hits her. They fight until Jack fortuitously shows up. Of course, Anne continues to call him “Rackham” even though they are sleeping together and falling in love. Even though Rogers has still not pardoned Jack and his crew, he nevertheless makes time to threaten legal action against Anne if she does not go back to James. Anne suggests they steal the William, which she accomplishes by flirting with John Haman.
Anne is in disguise under the name Edward, but others notice her and Jack’s sexual relationship and think they are gay. However two guys inexplicably can tell she is a woman for no reason and with no consequences. A guy named Throckmorton tries to rape her and she kills him in front of everybody. Jack tells her he orchestrated the whole thing so nobody would bother her. When they take their first prize some of the men rape a woman, which bothers Anne, though not enough to do anything about it except tell Jack, who doesn’t care.
Anne is 19 years old when they take Mary Reade on board as a prisoner off of a Dutch sloop. She asks Jack to join the crew. Anne is immediately obsessed with her. She opens her shirt to show Mary her breasts, and Mary does the same. Jack busts in and starts sword fighting Mary. Mary’s second love interest is Thomas Deane, who is English but inexplicably on a Spanish prize going to work as a tutor for the children of a Spanish governor. After the pirates subdue the prize, he tries to assassinate Jack and they keelhaul him. They return to Nassau in March 1720, but find out that Rogers is no longer offering pardons. Jack takes the ship out pirating while Anne and Mary stay in Nassau for Anne to have a baby. They randomly stumble across a leper colony and one of the lepers immediately clocks Mary as a woman. For no reason
Anne has a miscarriage five months into her pregnancy on July 16th. The men come back 2 months later. Anne and Mary tell the crew they are women and have a double wedding. Anne and Mary interrupt another gang rape. Thomas’ duel challenger is named Lowther. Mary asks Lowther to call off the duel, which he refuses to do, and she challenges him to a fight immediately. Thomas is embarrassed. Later Anne overhears two guys talk about raping her and Mary when they’re unconscious, and Anne assaults them. Mary apparently did not hear anything (even though she was talking to Anne presumably right next to her) and neither of the guys does anything.
When they are attacked by “Jonathon” Barnet, Anne fires guns at the other pirates, but Mary doesn’t. Barnet’s crew is a naval crew and James is an officer on the ship. They are responsible for capturing Charles Vane, who is hanged the day before Jack’s crew goes on trial. Jack tries to protect several defendants by claiming they are not guilty, including Anne and Mary. When Anne and Mary are on trial Thomas makes a scene. He plans to work as a teacher and raise his child. He disappears from the story after Mary dies.
James visits Anne in jail and tells her he wrote to her family. He offers to bring her baby to her family. He is present at the birth and Anne names the baby Mary. William and Edward come to Jamaica and pay to get Anne out of jail, but she is still supposed to be publicly flogged. James asks to be whipped in her place. In 1721 Anne sails back to the Carolinas with her family.
Depictions of John Rackam, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read 