Demelza Pearl Trevean

Demelza is often taken to be the swashbuckling sort of pirate – but she’s a little bit nervous of weapons, doesn’t massively agree with smuggling and really just wants to be out on the sea in a boat rather than stuck on land being a figurehead. Her crew know this – she’s captain of an all-women crew who are all escaping something – but no one lets on to the wider world.

She was a princess in her homeland, but didn’t fancy being stuck in one place for ever and always, so stowed away on a cargo ship when she was seventeen, before she could be married off and become a landlocked queen, and the rest is slightly hazy history.

Twenty years later, she writes to her family when she’s in port, visits them occasionally, and while there are no hard feelings, they’re not completely in the picture and think she’s a respectable trader. Hmm.

Demi’s become known as a pirate queen thanks to her quietly determined nature, her incredible stubbornness, and that persistent rumour she can speak mermaid.

Though she is understandably not a superfan of the whole queen / crown / ruler responsibilities. and would much rather get on with sailing and gentle looting of ships run by obnoxious aristocrats. She can spot one at fifty paces thanks to her heritage, and she’d really quite like to keep them busy defending their possessions so they can’t inconvenience anyone.

Not your average pirate by any measure, but she’ll defend her ship, her crew and her purpose to the last. And probably her crown if you tried to take it off her!

Demi is another alter ego with very personal meanings to her name. Demelza is a Cornish name – of course it is, she’s a pirate – and Trevean is the name of the house my Dad grew up in. She grew out of stories of smugglers and dreams of sailing ships, from tales of mermaids and pirates and from my love of a striped skirt and Victorian boots, and she’s my adventurous heart.