Pirates do battle for top book award

Artist Jonny Duddle carried off the £5,000 prize for his book, The Pirates Next Door, beating 17 other shortlisted writers including Pirates of the Caribbean star Mackenzie Crook.

Crook, who played Ragetti in the hit films, was nominated for his book The Windvale Sprites.

Duddle, who worked as an artist on the new animated film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, said he was partly inspired by a year he spent working on a square rigger ship.

The winning book is the story of a pirate family called the Jolley-Rogers who move to a quiet seaside town and upset the locals.

Duddle, from Mold in North Wales, also won the Best Picture Book category.

Waterstones’ managing director James Daunt said: “The books we read in our formative years are of crucial importance. “