Based on true events… An epic take on the white slave trade by Barbary pirates, centreing on the most famous buccaneer of the Salle Rovers—Jan Janszoon Van Haarlem. This novel-length narrative poem is set over six books, all interconnected but each telling its own separate and unique story.

The first book, Nine Lives Jan Janszoon, is about the Dutch renegado, also known as Murat Reiss, and his rise to Governor of the breakaway pirate republic.

The second book, A Cornish Concubine, is the story of a young girl, Jane Joseph Angove, a distant relation of the Cornish hero Michael Joseph An Gof, who was captured in Janszoon’s raid on St. Keverne in 1626. It tells off her harrowing time as concubine in the harem of the mad and cruel Sultan Ibrahim.

The third book is the dramatised yet true account of Ólafur Egilsson, an Icelandic pastor, and his wife Ásta Porsteinsdóttir who were enslaved with their sons and sold into servitude in Tangiers after the terrible ‘Tyrkjaránio–Janszoon's nightmarish attack on the island in the summer of 1627. After release, the story recounts Ólafur’s traumatic journey home to Iceland to try to raise funds to pay the ransom for his lost family.

The fourth, The Whore of Algiers is told entirely in limerick form and is the tale of the beautiful Icelandic maiden Gudridur Simmonasdottir who after being released from captivity went on to marry Iceland's most famous poet and pastor.

The fifth book, The Cherub Boy of Baltimore is the traumatic tale of an Icelandic giant, now a galley slave, as he tries to save the life of his bench companion, a beautiful Irish boy who was taken in Janszoon's raid on Baltimore, Ireland.

The last book, A Moor in Manhattan, is the story of Janszoon's son Anthony, "The Troublesome Turk," as he wrecks havoc in New Amsterdam...

Written and read by Mat Horton; music by Herbie Wolf