The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye A Novel

This “thrilling, swashbuckling story” (People) based on true events illuminates a woman of color’s rise to power as one of the few female pirate captains to sail the Caribbean, and a forbidden love story that will shape the course of history.

In the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, Jacquotte Delahaye is an up-and-coming shipwright, but her ambitions are bound by the confines of her self-seeking French father. When her way of life and the delicate balance of power in the town are threatened, she is forced to flee her home and become a woman on the run along with a motley crew of refugees, including a mysterious young woman named Teresa.

Jacquotte and her band become indentured servants to the infamous Blackhand, a ruthless pirate captain who rules his ship with an iron fist. As they struggle to survive, Jacquotte finds herself unable to resist Teresa despite their differences. When Blackhand hatches a dangerous scheme to steal a Portuguese shipment of jewels, Jacquotte must rely on her wits, resourcefulness, and friends to survive. But she discovers there is a grander, darker scheme of treachery at play, and she ultimately must decide what price she is willing to pay to secure a better future for them all.

Passionate, action-packed, and unputdownable, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye is “a beautiful and, at times, gut-wrenching tale of found family, self-discovery, and the true meaning of freedom” (M. J. Kuhn, author of Among Thieves).

Briony Cameron is a queer disabled writer based in Cardiff, UK. Her father was of Jamaican, Panamanian, and Cuban heritage and her mother is of English and Welsh heritage. She studied English and creative writing at university, graduating in 2020. She has a keen love of history that began with her first reading of The Three Musketeers as a child. She has been writing since she could pick up a pencil, first emulating the comic books her dad raised her on before moving on to novels. In 2020 her short story “The Nantes Affair” was longlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Short Story Competition, and her debut novel, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye, was longlisted that same year for the Penguin WriteNow Competition, and in 2021 it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Prize. Alongside writing, she is an avid knitter and she loves to play videogames and spend time with her dog, Keanu.