Book Review 'The Barbary Corsairs' Warfare in the Mediterranean 1480-1580 by Jacques Heers

Hello There! While looking for information concerning the Barbary Corsairs and piracy during this period, I found this in a second hand bookshop.

I required some information concerning the 'Pirate Lookout Tower' I am making for my 28mm figures. It is specifically for a recreation of the battle of Maida. While that battlefield was uninteresting with a shallow creek travelling across its width there was a tower to one side.

 This took no part in the battle but was a lookout position for some British officers which were later able to write about the progress of the battle and this information was later used to discount the actions of the French forces attacking the British in column.

Moving onto the book, I was disappointed in the books format, which I put down to the fact that it was a translation. The book was a continuous description of the ever changing raids, counter raids, truces, treaties and fighting over this historical period. This was fascinating but was very hard to keep up with. The usual lack of good maps, near to their subject in the text also made the text difficult to keep up with.

It did provide some information of the system of watchtowers which were used by the population living on the southern coast of Europe to warn of the approach of pirates, who would capture villagers and sell them in to slavery.

Overall it was not a book you could dip in and out of but did have a number of possibilities to provide ideas for a campaign for this period and had plenty of background on the colourful characters of this period.