Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on September 02, 2003 at 07:48:29 from 195.93.32.8 user ACB.
In Reply to: The Real Missee Lee posted by FrankJ on September 02, 2003 at -1:08:48:
The book that you are looking for is "I sailed with Chinese Pirates" by Aleko Lilius, published in the 1930's and reprinted quite recently in a paperback edition, which contains an account of Lai Choi-San, a lady pirate, who had suceeded her father in the piracy business, operating out of Bias Bay, a little North of Hong Kong. Bias Bay, a notorious pirate nest, was certainly the origin for Missee Lee's kingdom.
However, the enthusiasm for Latin, and the addiction to Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade, were not traits of Lai Choi-San; these and some other traits were taken over from the other model for Missee Lee, Soong Ching-Ling, the wife of Sun Yat-Sen (and later President of China), who had been educated at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and whom Ransome knew.