Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Margaret Cezair-Thompson - contributed

DID Errol Flynn really father a child by a teenaged Jamaican in the 1940s? Or is it just another of the many sensational rumours affixed to the former Hollywood star's name?

The answer to both questions is no. Flynn's fictional tryst with a Port Antonio girl is merely the plot behind The Pirate's Daughter, a book by Jamaican author Margaret Cezair-Thompson.

Released in early 2007, the book has been a winner for Britain's Headline Review and New York's Unbridled Books. Critics say it has established Cezair-Thompson - the daughter of Pan-Africanist and former government minister Dudley Thompson - as a top-flight author.

Readers in Britain and North America have warmed to The Pirate's Daughter's mix of the Hollywood glamour Flynn brought to Port Antonio and colonial Jamaica, which he helped make a getaway for the rich and famous.

Cezair-Thompson, who lives in Boston, told The Gleaner that she worked on her second book for seven years. Port Antonio, one of her favourite spots in Jamaica, was the biggest inspiration.

Rich Jamaican past

"I actually love that part of Jamaica's past because it's historically rich; it was the birth of Caribbean tourism and the banana industry," she said. "Once I decided on Port Antonio as the setting, I said, oh my goodness, Errol Flynn was also there."

An Australian, Flynn made his name as a swashbuckler in Hollywood classics such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood.

His glory days were over when his yacht, Zaca, washed up in Port Antonio in 1946; Flynn was so taken with the seaside town that he bought the picturesque Navy Island and lived in Port Antonio until his death in 1959.

In The Pirate's Daughter, the married Flynn falls for Ida, teenaged daughter of his friend Eli Joseph, a Jamaican of Lebanese descent. Eventually, she becomes pregnant and bears his child, May, who meets her famous father only once.

Flynn, who was married three times, had a notorious reputation as a ladies man. Throughout his career, he fought charges of having numerous affairs with underaged girls.

Cezair-Thompson was aware of Flynn's Lothario status. "I wanted to treat his character in a fair way and show a human side. It was important for me to flesh him out," she said.

The Pirate's Daughter has been so well received that it has gone into a second print. Cezair-Thompson is scheduled to do a local reading at the Calabash Literary Festival in May.

Margaret Cezair-Thompson says she grew up in the Barbican area of St Andrew, the second of four children for Dudley Thompson. After graduating from St Andrew High School, she left for the United States where she attended college.

Her first book, The True History of Paradise, was released in 1999. Currently, Cezair-Thompson teaches literature and creative writing at Wellesley College in Boston.

Errol Flynn and his wife, Patrice Wymore (circa 1953) with the 150-lb blue marlin, caught by Flynn onboard the boat The Stormy Petrel. - FILE