Briony’s debut novel is a swashbuckling success

An English and Creative Writing graduate from the University of South Wales has published her first book, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye, which tells the tale of one of the first purported female pirate captains in the Caribbean.

Briony Cameron, who graduated in 2020, has always loved history, and her keen interest in stories began when she read The Three Musketeers as a child.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Cardiff, was inspired to write her debut novel after discovering that very little was known about Jacquotte Delahaye, a fierce and legendary female pirate who is thought to have created the Freebooter Republic.

Briony said: “A late night Wikipedia spiral led me to a page on female pirates, but I was unable to find much information on Jacquotte Delahaye. I was obsessed with the concept of this woman, and decided that this was something I would write for myself.

“So often women of colour are erased from history, and I felt a real passion to get Jacquotte’s story out there, especially as the achievements attributed to her are such amazing and fantastic feats. I just really wanted to do her justice and bring her story to life. The first 10,000 words or so of this manuscript actually ended up being my dissertation for my degree.”

The novel is set in the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, where Jacquotte is an unknown but up-and-coming shipwright. Her dreams are bold, but her ambitions are bound by the confines of her life with 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 his brutality, 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.

Becoming a writer is something that Briony has always wanted to do, and studying English and Creative Writing helped prepare her for the industry in lots of ways. She said: “One of my third year modules was Writing for Publication, which gave me a lot of information about literary agents. This helped me when I began meeting agents and figuring out what I wanted from mine, before I eventually signed with my brilliant agent, Laurie Robertson. It also helped me later when I began working at The Good Literary Agency as their Submissions Coordinator, and eventually the Agency Assistant.

“Overall, though, one of the most valuable parts of the course was meeting other writers, including the lecturers; discussing ideas and books, what we loved about them and what didn’t work for us, which really helped me define my writing style. I also loved my literature modules, which felt rooted both in writing, but also in history, an area that has always been close to my heart.”

Briony is already working on her next book – another work of historical fiction – which will be published in 2026.

Find out more about The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye here.