My review of Drake - Tudor Corsair: 1 (The Elizabethan Series) by Tony Riches @tonyriches @maryanneyarde

  

Drake - Tudor Corsair

(The Elizabethan Series Book 1)

By Tony Riches

1564

 

Devon sailor Francis Drake sets out on a journey of adventure.

 

Drake learns of routes used to transport Spanish silver and gold, and risks his life in an audacious plan to steal a fortune.

 

Queen Elizabeth is intrigued by Drake and secretly encourages his piracy. Her unlikely champion becomes a national hero, sailing around the world in the Golden Hind and attacking the Spanish fleet.

 

King Philip of Spain has enough of Drake’s plunder and orders an armada to threaten the future of England.

 

MY THOUGHTS

Tony Riches has really outdone himself in this fascinating portrait of Sir Francis Drake. This book starts at the very beginning of Sir Francis Drake’s seafaring adventures. It is a story of high-seas, new discoveries, piracy and the dangerous Tudor court of Elizabeth I.

 

Mr Riches has given his readers a protagonist’s who is determined to rise in station and become the very best in his field. His lust for wealth is tempered only by his abhorrence at some of the things he witnesses. Drake is honourable but at the same time, a despicable pirate, whose blatant theft of other people’s property, most notably the Spanish, is excused by an English monarch who is desperate for funds and to suppress the threat from Spain.

 

90% of this book is set at sea, and my only complaint is that I would have liked to have seen a little more detail of Sir Frances Drake in a domestic situation, but putting that aside, the escapades of this notorious pirate / explorer was enthralling, and it was a book that I found terribly hard to drag myself from when the real world called.

 

Mr Riches has given us a very likeable Sir Frances Drake. He is a considerate captain and treats his captives fairly. He also has a conscious which gives him many sleepless nights, but above all, this story is one of an extraordinary life lived to the very fullest.

 

If you love anything Tudor, then you should definitely put Drake - Tudor Corsair: 1 (The Elizabethan Series) on your reading list.

 

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Tony Riches

 

Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of best-selling historical fiction. He lives in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the history of the Wars of the Roses and the lives of the early Tudors. Tony’s other published historical fiction novels include: Owen – Book One Of The Tudor Trilogy, Jasper – Book Two Of The Tudor Trilogy, Henry – Book Three Of The Tudor Trilogy, Mary – Tudor Princess, Brandon – Tudor Knight and The Secret Diary Of Eleanor Cobham. For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website tonyriches.com and his blog, The Writing Desk and find him on  Facebook and Twitter @tonyriches