Sabatini"s stories abound with drama and melodrama, action and excitement and brilliant colour... No writer, not Scott, nor Dumas, nor Stevenson, has brought the past to life more vividly . (George MacDonald Fraser). Oliver Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman, is blessed with "youth, wealth, and good digestion". When he is betrayed by his half-brother he becomes a Barbary pirate and wins the title of Sakr-el-Bahr - Hawk of the Sea. He becomes the scourge of the Mediterranean and the terror of Christians...