Sea Witch - Hollick, Helen

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Résumé :
The Time : The Golden Age of Piracy - 1716. The Place : The Pirate Round - from the South African Coast to the Caribbean. Escaping the bullying of his elder half-brother, from the age of fifteen Jesamiah Acorne has been a pirate with only two loves - his ship and his freedom. But his life is to change when he and his crewmates unsuccessfully attack a merchant ship off the coast of South Africa. He is to meet Tiola Oldstagh an insignificant girl, or so he assumes - until she rescues him from a vicious attack, and almost certain death, by pirate hunters. And then he discovers what she really is; a healer, a midwife - and a white witch. Tiola and Jesamiah become lovers, but the wealthy Stefan van Overstratten, a Cape Town Dutchman, also wants Tiola as his wife and Jesamiah's jealous brother, Phillipe Mereno, is determined to seek revenge for resentments of the past, a stolen ship and the insult of being cuckolded in his own home. When the call of the sea and an opportunity to commandeer a beautiful ship - the Sea Witch - is put in Jesamiah's path he must make a choice between his life as a pirate or his love for Tiola. He wants both, but Mereno and van Overstratten want him dead. In trouble, imprisoned in the darkness and stench that is the lowest part of his brother's ship, can Tiola, with her gift of Craft and the aid of his loyal crew, save him? Using all her skills Tiola must conjure up a wind to rescue her lover, but first she must brave the darkness of the ocean depths and confront the supernatural being, Tethys, the Spirit of the Sea, an elemental who will stop at nothing to claim Jesamiah Acorne's soul and bones as a trophy for herself

Biographie:
After an exciting Lottery win on the opening night of the 2012 London Olympic Games, Helen Hollick moved from a North-East London suburb to an eighteenth century farmhouse in North Devon, where she lives with her husband, daughter and son-in-law, and a variety of pets and animals, which include several moorland-bred Exmoor ponies. Her study overlooks part of the Taw Valley, where the main road runs from Exeter to Barnstaple, and back in the 1600s troops of the English Civil Wars marched to and from battle. There are several friendly ghosts sharing the house and farm, and Helen regards herself as merely a temporary custodian of the lovely old house, not its owner.
First published in 1994, her passion, now, is her pirate character, Captain Jesamiah Acorne of the nautical adventure series, The Sea Witch Voyages, which have been snapped up by US-based, independent publisher, Penmore Press.
Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) the story of Saxon Queen, Emma of Normandy. Her novel Harold the King (titled I Am The Chosen King in the US) explores the events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, while her Pendragon's Banner Trilogy, set in the fifth century, is widely acclaimed as a more historical version of the Arthurian legend, with no magic, no Lancelot, Merlin or Holy Grail, but instead, the 'what might have happened' story of the boy who became a man, who became a king, who became a legend...
Helen is also published in various languages including German, Turkish and Italian.