Written in diary form, this is the swashbuckling story of reluctant pirate pupil Pickles, packed off by her parents to pirate school, when she would much rather spend her days painting.

At the academy she is taught such essential pirate topics as treasure, how to make cannon balls, the correct way to say "Ooh Arrgh!" and so on.

Then she discovers a staffroom plot to kidnap the pupils and hold them to ransom.

So she leads a mutiny, following which she and her fellow pupils set sail in The Golden Behind and have a great life robbing pirates.

Pickles (revealed on the last page to be a girl called Maisy" is happy because she has plenty of time to paint. Colin McNaughton's other books include "There's an Awful Lot of Weirdos in our Neighbourhood", "Who's Been Sleeping in my Porridge?", "Making Friends With Frankenstein", "Have You Seen Who's Just Moved in Next Door To Us?" (winner of the 1989 British Children's Book Award), "Watch Out For the Giant-Killers!" (shortlisted for the 1991 Earthworm Award) and "Who's That Banging on the Ceiling?".