High adventure on the seas for plunder and profit
This well known account of the 'gentlemen of the black flag' by Thornbury was originally published in three volumes under the title Monarchs of the Main; the original edition is complete in this good value, single volume Leonaur edition. Sea Rovers, Filibusters, Privateers, Buccaneers and Pirates-regardless of their title these predators of the waves have endured as long as sea trade itself, although they are especially associated with the Spanish Main of the Caribbean. Strictly speaking there is some distinction between those who operated under license from their own governments and those who were simply criminals, but reality was somewhat different. These were violent, desperate seafarers with a taste for adventure, blood and gold. The man who was a pirate one day would readily be a buccaneer the next-and vice-versa. Nevertheless, there has always been an abiding interest in the romantic aspects of these free spirits, whose allegiance was mainly to their own swaying decks. That fascination is as strong today, in fiction and on the cinema screen, as it was when classics such as Treasure Island first saw print. Within the pages of this book readers will discover the real life activities of infamous figures such as Lolonnois the Cruel, Montbars the Exterminator, Sir Henry Morgan, Sawkins, Sharp, Ravenau de Lussan and many other 'monarchs of the Main.'
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

This pioneering two-volume biography, first published in 1862, explores the genius of the groundbreaking Romantic landscape and historical painter J. M. W. Turner (1775 1851). As both journalist and historian, author Walter Thornbury (1828 76) has a light touch, yet he draws on a wide range of correspondence, sketchbooks, watercolours and etchings to give a detailed picture of Turner's artistic development and connections, and his increasingly eccentric character. Volume 1 traces the artist's progress from humble cockney beginnings, through youthful friendship and rivalry with Thomas Girtin and a stint as a drawing-master, to his establishment as a Royal Academician at the heart of the nineteenth-century art world. Thornbury sees Turner from all angles, covering his travels at home and abroad, his watercolour and printmaking techniques, his love of sea and sky and colour gradations, and even his fraught monetary dealings. The author also fully contextualises great works like Ulysses Deriding Polythemus and The Fighting Temeraire.

This pioneering two-volume biography, first published in 1862, explores the genius of the groundbreaking Romantic landscape and historical painter J. M. W. Turner (1775 1851). As both journalist and historian, author Walter Thornbury (1828 76) has a light touch, yet he draws on a wide range of correspondence, sketchbooks, watercolours and etchings to give a detailed picture of Turner's artistic development and connections, and his increasingly eccentric character. Volume 2 fills out the record by detailing the artist's relationships with patrons such as Lord Egremont of Petworth House, and such fellow Royal Academicians as the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey. Among the topics covered here are Turner's love of poetry, dealings with buyers, miserliness (or otherwise), the tailing off of his powers, and his final mysterious metamorphosis into 'Admiral Booth'. Advised by Ruskin not to try to 'mask the dark side' of his subject, Thornbury presents a rounded but still admiring picture of his hero.