The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists
Cover art for the Hardback edition
Author	Gideon Defoe
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Comedy
Publisher	Orion Books
Publication date	26 August 2004
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	144 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-297-84885-2
Followed by	The Pirates! in an Adventure with Whaling

The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists is the first book by Gideon Defoe dealing with a hapless crew of pirates. It was published in 2004 by Orion Books (ISBN 0-297-84885-2).

The book is set in 1837, and follows the adventures of The Pirate Captain and his crew of non-orthodox pirates. They meet a young Charles Darwin and Mister Bobo, a highly trained and sophisticated "man-panzee".

The Pirate Captain doesn't really know what he is doing, but is very much respected by his crew. He has a full luxuriant beard. His arch nemesis is Black Bellamy, a pirate with a beard that goes all the way up to his eyes, who often outsmarts the pirate captain.

Ham is very important to the pirates and is taken very seriously. The Captain has a prize honey-glazed ham which he keeps in a glass display-case, with a silk bow tied around it. The prize ham has a major role in the book's sequel, The Pirates! in an Adventure with Whaling.

The book is not aimed at children, and much of the humour relies on an adult appreciation of cliché and irony, though children may well enjoy it.

According to Aardman Animations website, author Gideon Defoe is working with producer/director Peter Lord on the screenplay and with writers Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil Hyperdrive (TV series) to turn the first two books from the series into a movie.