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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Corsair
|author=Tim Severin
|date=June 2007
|isbn=978-1405088886
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>1405088885</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=1405088885|aznus=<amazonus>1405088885</amazonus>
}}
Seventeen-year-old Hector Lynch and his sister Elizabeth are sent every summer to study at the Franciscan friary in a small Irish village. They are snatched from their beds by Barbary corsairs and Hector is sold at auction in Algiers. He has no idea what has happened to his sister. Hector is sent for hard labour in the bagnio, where he makes a friend in Dan, a Miskito Indian from the Caribbean. Hector and Dan have individual talents - Hector is highly educated, while Dan is an artist and expert shot - and so, once they've converted to Islam, they soon find favour with their master and their way out of the bagnio. Their good fortune doesn't last, and they soon find themselves in slavery once more, this time in the French galleys. But Hector is still determined to find his sister...
''Corsair'' is recommended for fans of historical adventure more interested in the technical aspects of life than in characterisation and particularly for those with an interest in exploration, the slave trade, the war between cross and crescent and naval history generally.
My thanks to the kind people at Macmillan for sending the book. We also have a review of [[Saxon: The Book of Dreams (Saxon 1) by Tim Severin]].
Those who enjoy a military aspect in their historical fiction might like Sam Barone's [[Dawn of Empire]] which talks about the building of the first walled city. You might appreciate [[Soldier of Fortune by Edward Marston]] but we had reservations.
{{amazontext|amazon=1405088885}}