TREASURE ISLAND FOUND!

A British Member of Parliament has today confirmed that Robert Louis Stevenson set his classic adventure novel Treasure Island in the towns of Birkenhead and Wallasey, which lie on the Wirral Peninsula in the North-West of England.

The statement comes just six months after Alan Evans of Wirral Council confirmed that the French science fiction author Jules Verne set his classic 1874 novel The Mysterious Island in Birkenhead, and this points to obvious collusion between the two world famous authors.

Both statements endorse the findings of retired teacher John Lamb, who until 2019 was the Head of Geography at the Liverpool Blue Coat School.

Mick Whitley the Member of Parliament for Birkenhead confirmed in a letter to Mr Lamb.

Thankyou so much for visiting my office and sharing your findings regarding the centrality of Birkenhead and Wirral to fictional works of the French Author, Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson’s world-famous novel Treasure Island.

The extensive research you have carried out and kindly shared with me and my team have convinced me that your conclusions regarding the centrality of Birkenhead, and other locations on the Wirral, to works such as Mysterious Island, are sound. I believe these links can and should play a central role in celebrating the cultural heritage of our town and region and its connections with world literature.

I commend your work and your commitment. I am grateful you have shared your findings with me. Please accept my congratulations and support for your continuing research.

Treasure Island can claim to be one of the most famous books in world literature and was written by the 31-year-old Scotsman Robert Louis Stevenson in 1881.

Mr Lamb’s latest findings mean that Birkenhead and Wirral can now claim to be the literary home of both Captain Nemo and the Nautilus as well as Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver, Billy Bones, Ben Gunn and Captain Flint’s treasure.

The findings about Robert Louis Stevenson are contained in articles 39-40 on the ‘Jules Verne and the Heroes of Birkenhead’ website.

The website can be found here

I believe this is one of the great discoveries of world literature as it reveals the collective writing styles of both Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne in describing real life geographical locations in hidden deep metaphor.

For example, at the start of Treasure Island, the historic Mother Red Caps Public House on Wallasey promenade plays the role of ‘Admiral Benbow Inn’, and the Magazines Village at New Brighton plays the adjacent ‘hamlet’.

Robert Louis Stevenson does not hold back on the clues – there is a man with a red cap, a Mr Arrow and a man with a broken head - local people will recognise all these clues.

One Liverpool location is used and that is the sandy cove that existed at Knott’s Hole, Dingle Vale, South Liverpool which plays ‘Kitt’s Hole … down the dingle’ in Treasure Island. This is included as it was the home of James Cropper the man who kickstarted and masterminded the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833. Cropper was the great unsung hero who I believe should be more widely celebrated in Liverpool.

All the locations on the ‘Island of Treasure’ are also based on real locations on the Wirral Peninsula.

Birkenhead’s Bidston Hill and observatory play the role of Spy-glass Hill – all the names being driven by Birkenhead and Wallasey’s romantic history.

The north inlet of the island is based on the Birkenhead docks at Wallasey Pool, while the south inlet called ‘Captain Kidd’s Anchorage’ is based on the now covered over Tranmere Pool.

The fort in Magazines Village New Brighton acts as the pirate stockade in the novel, and a mention is even given to the adjacent Round House, which is now the home of local Black Pearl Pirate, Frank Lund.

Vale Park woods plays the woodland next to the stockade.

Also alluded to in the novel are St Hilary’s church in Wallasey village and the Cheshire Cheese Public House.

Birkenhead Woodside plays ‘The Cape of the Woods’ while Hilbre Island and its seals are also featured.

At the end of the novel, the pirates led by Long John Silver go in search of the treasure, they first travel up the north inlet (now Borough Road, Birkenhead) and up to the Prenton ridge, they then head north in search of three tall trees – they find these at Bidston windmill, Bidston Observatory and Bidston Lighthouse.

Captain Flint’s treasure is beneath the shadow of the third tree (Bidston Lighthouse) but the treasure has already been dug up and taken away by the marooned pirate Ben Gunn.

The shape of Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island is made in the shape of Birkenhead Park’s Upper Lake, while the shape of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island is made in the shape of Birkenhead Park’s Lower Lake.

Robert Louis Stevenson follows Verne in basing his characters on real people.

Long John Silver, otherwise known as ‘The Sea Cook’ or ‘Barbeque’ is based on the Confederate ‘Pirate’ Raphael Semmes captain of the Birkenhead built CSS Alabama.

For balance, the character of the drunken pirate Billy Bones is based on Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward.

The real life ‘actor’ playing the role of Jim Hawkins, is the same young man who played the character of ‘Herbert’ in Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island. He had two Confederate Uncles living in Liverpool, but his father was a friend of Abraham Lincoln.

His identity is given in article 39 and it is a real surprise, especially as I believe he knew about his roles in these novels from a young age and it spurred him on to achieve great things in his life.

I believe other authors are involved and there is a wider story here based on the abolition of slavery and the repentance of some Civil War Confederates in the Christian tradition.