In the summer of 1881, staying near Braemar in Scotland, Stevenson reported excitedly that he was on to a new story: The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island.

Written at the rate of a chapter a day for fifteen days (and completed later in the same year), the novel soon became a classic. An absorbing tale of buccaneers, a map, a romantic quest for treasure, it is also the story of the sea cook of its original title - the brilliantly drawn Long John Silver, that smooth and formidable adventurer of whom Stevenson was rightly proud and for whom even he felt a little admiration.