I’ve been working on this novel about 17th century Caribbean pirates for four years now, which is longer than I’ve ever worked on anything else. I’m interested in the concept of piracy, and in the society that generated this concept. I think that the people of the 17th century were very different from us in their assumptions about the universe, their notions about human behavior, and their fundamental values. There is not a “sameness’ to human nature through the centuries that most historical novels would have us believe. We tend to think that Charles II was pretty much like any of us, except that he happened to be king. That’s not true. The world in which he lived was very different.

For example, in the 17th century, the mechanisms of disease were not understood at all. And there was no virtue in hygienic habits, not even as a point of fashion. Oysters were a lower-class dish, cheap and readily available. It was a time not far removed from the Middle Ages: a society in which religious beliefs were firmly held by everyone. It is incredible to think that someone like Isaac Newton spent easily half of his working life devoted to the study of alchemy. It is an extraordinary feeling to spend your whole morning living in the world of 1665, and then get into your Mercedes-Benz and have lunch at some restaurant in Beverly Hills.