HISTORICAL author Helen Hollick has published a swashbuckling adventure about pirates.

Sea Witch follows the adventures of the dashing Jesamiah Acorne, who runs away from an abusive brother to become a pirate and sail the high seas in the early 1700s.

His rum-drinking, cutlass-toting life of plunder is turned upside down, however, when he meets a white witch and falls in love. His enemies seek revenge and he must choose between his life as a pirate and the woman he loves.

Mrs Hollick, 53, a Walthamstow resident, was inspired to write her latest book when she was looking at pirate messaging boards on the internet.

"We all love Pirates of the Caribbean and I just got thinking, I wonder what the reality of pirates was like," she told the Guardian.

So she started researching and found that fiction books about pirates for adults were few and far between. "People like Sharpe and those kind of adventure stories and a lot of people do want to read about pirates, so I thought I'd write a pirate adventure," she said.

Sea Witch is a departure for the author, who is well known for two serious historical fiction trilogies set in Arthurian times and in the 11th century.

Jesamiah, who Mrs Hollick hopes will be as popular as Pirates of the Caribbean's Jack Sparrow, is already getting attention on the pirate messaging boards and even receiving email.

Mrs Hollick says they are just a bit of fun.

"They ask where you can buy the best rum and what are the necessary requirements for being a pirate, that kind of thing," she said.

Mrs Hollick has been writing since she was a teenager and professionally for the past 15 years, after working as a library assistant and in a series of part-time jobs while she brought up her daughter Kate.

She said she tried to give up for about two weeks once and get a proper' job but she could not keep it up. "There's always a story going on in the back of my mind," she said. "I just love it."