A guest blog by Helen Hollick Theirs was a harsh life, overshadowed each day by the presence of death, but the lure of gold, the excitement of the Chase – and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered – even for a woman – was worth the risk. Helen has written a series of nautical Voyages based around her fictional pirate, Captain Jesamiah Acorne, and his ship, Sea Witch, but her latest UK release in paperback is a non-fiction book – Pirates: Truth and Tales published by Amberley Press, which explores our fascination with the real pirates and those who are favourites in fiction. Today, Helen drops anchor for another interesting addition to her on-line two-week Voyage around the Blogs with a pirate or two for company… If you were poor, black, or a woman, the early 1700s were not a good place to be. Women had no rights on decision of marriage, no rights over health and well-being, over their children or to legal justice. Women were regarded as possessions. One in f...

I love Murdoch Mysteries , a television detective series set in early 1900s Toronto. Recently I enjoyed an episode ( Victor, Victorian ) which featured a group of women who regularly dressed up as men in order to experience the freedom of movement that men have. In their (not very convincing) disguises they went into clubs, they smoked and drank, they flagged down taxis. One character exclaimed excitedly about the attention and respect she received dressed as a man, which was clearly so very different from her usual experience. It’s interesting to realise that in the UK women wearing trousers has been regarded as something controversial until very recently. It was not until 1995 that women barristers were allowed to wear trousers in court. Only four years later school girls were still being told that they could not wear trousers as part of their school uniforms. Forget that trousers are comfortable, practical, and allow freedom of movement, they were – and in some minds still are ...