Buccaneers, heroes and zealots

Charles Kingsley will not make the best seller lists anymore and there are a couple of aspects, which make his writing hard to digest nowadays, but I came across Westward Ho, when I visited the lovely village of Clovelly in Devon, where Kingsley did most of his work.

Kingsley was quite a character. He was a minister of the Church of England, but his ardent dislike of Catholics, the bottomless hatred of the Spanish and the incredible contempt of the Irish are hard to reconcile with his office.

Regardless of that, I was immediately enthralled by the story, just by listening to Frederick Davidson, who did an outstanding job. His voice makes the characters come alive and it is pure pleasure to listen to him.

Westward Ho is the story of the Elizabethan Amyas Leigh, who sailed with Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh to the New World. The young Amyas is quite a handful and soon enough he sails with Drake around the world. He becomes a buccaneer and his insatiable hunger for gold and his hatred of the Spaniards drives him to the Caribbean and the jungles of South America.

There are enough sea battles, duels and sword fighting to make the story entertaining and of course there is love and passion to spice the story even more. The final bonus is the accurate description of the battle of the Spanish Armada.

Yes, the story was written more 150 years ago and some of it appears silly now, but regardless of that, I enjoyed the book

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