Rafael Sabatini (1875 - 1950) was an Italian/British writer of novels of romance and adventure. At a young age, Rafael was exposed to many languages. By the time he was seventeen, he was the master of five languages. He quickly added a sixth language - English - to his linguistic collection. After a brief stint in the business world, Sabatini went to work as a writer. He wrote short stories in the 1890s, and his first novel came out in 1902. Sabatini was a prolific writer; he produced a new book approximately every year. He consciously chose to write in his adopted language, because, he said,...

The Sea-Hawk Set against the backdrop of the Spanish invasion of England during the reign of Elizabeth I, The Sea Hawk is a classic of the pirate genre. Sir Oliver Tressilian is betrayed by a jealous half-brother and forced to serve as a slave on a galley. He is liberated when the ship is hijacked by Barbary pirates. Sir Oliver joins the pirates, gaining the name "Sakr-el-Bahr" (the hawk of the sea), and swears vengeance against his brother. The book was the basis for The Sea Hawk, the popular 1940 Errol Flynn swashbuckler.