The Buccaneer Explorer....

I've just started reading a couple of excellent books that followed on, unsurprisingly, from another book I'd been reading: History of Australia and New Zealand by Alexander Sutherland. Written in the 1890's, in the book's early pages it makes some references to a man by the name of William Dampier.

Originally from Somerset, Dampier spent the best part of his life as a privateer, buccaneer or pirate, managed to circumnavigate the world three times and in between was very productive as a writer, authoring the first major English travel book: A New Voyage Around The World along with a host of other books about his lifelong travels.

The Buccaneer Explorer, William Dampier's Voyages Edited by Gerald Norris is an awesome compilation of some of Dampier's writings, and I've also just started reading A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind by Diana & Michael Preston a biography of the man himself, based on what I've read so far, William is turning out to be a great English hero apparently forgotten by many.