The Tale of Admiral Benbow - D.A. Holdsworth - ★★★

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AUTHOR: D.A. Holdsworth
GENRE: Poetry
PUBLICATION DATE: December 5, 2025
RATING: 3 stars.


In a Nutshell: An illustrated epic ballad aimed at children but better for adults. Innovative in concept and implementation. Great language and rhymes, good structure, quirky simian characters. Had I been a poetry person, I might have enjoyed this more. Recommended.


I never knew epic ballads are still being written, that’s how much of an ignoramus I am when it comes to poetry. The only epic ballad I have read is Coleridge’s ‘The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’, and that too, with a lot of hesitation. As such, I was a bit apprehensive when this book came my way. Given my aversion towards anything poetic, I didn’t trust myself to be able to focus on a lengthy piece of poetry. Keep this in mind because the rest of my feedback is influenced heavily by this regrettable shortcoming.

This ballad poem comes to us from a first-person narrator who bumps into an aging chimpanzee at a tavern. Nudged by the narrator’s feeling of moroseness, the chimp begins narrating the tale of the greatest sailing chimp of England, the legend of the acclaimed Admiral Benbow and his battle with the pirate Alfons.

The entire poem vibrates with old-world feels, right from the setting to the language to the characters. Of course, the characters are not humans but our closest DNA relatives – apes and monkeys. There’s such a whimsical effect created when we read of navigational achievements and pirate battles with a variety of primates.

I am not too comfortable with poems that are written in random meter and have no rhymes at all. My meagre-sized poetic bone needs those comforts to hold on to while reading poetry. Hence I am happy to report that this ballad worked perfectly on those two counts. Every four-line stanza is in perfect meter and has a proper rhyming scheme (varying across ABCB, ABAC, and ABAB.)

Despite the above, I did struggle somewhat, and this is because of the sheer length of the poem. The epic ballad lasts 58 pages, with at least half of those pages containing 5 stanzas each. I can barely read two pages of poetry before zoning out. So chalk this down entirely to my discomfort with this format of writing. It helped that the poem was peppered with illustrations, offering my brain an illusion of relief.

Of course, as an epic ballad, this isn’t just a poem but a story as well. In that form, it did capture my interest, though perhaps the poetic appearance made me miss out on deep-diving more. Regardless, there are some beautiful quotes within the stanzas that not only enhance the story but offer some nice brain fodder.

The illustrations are as quirky as the cover indicates. The poem being a serious one, the graphics are also serious rather than comical. It’s strange to see monkeys doing no monkeying around in the graphics but indulging in human stuff. I liked the art style, though it would perhaps appeal more to children.

I can't forget to mention the author’s foreword at the start – it is fascinating! I am impressed by the source of this poem, and also understand why the language and the events of the work feel so crisp and authentic.

The blurb calls this a potential “children’s classic”, perfect for fans of “Treasure Island” and “The Wind in the Willows”. I think “children’s classic” is a slight misnomer. The two classics mentioned alongside provide a better insight into the kind of book this is. The book has alcohol and violence, so just as is applicable for “Treasure Island” and “The Wind in the Willows”, tweens can read this but older readers will better appreciate the content. I think age 11+ could still be a good option. At the same time, the language might be a turn-off for this age group. The vocabulary is somewhat complex (not just because of difficult words but because of the topic itself). Further, the poetry is *proper* poetry, with several lines taking poetic license with grammatical sentence structure. What I am trying to say is, children like me might find this challenging. 🤭

Recommended to those who enjoy epic ballad poems, classics and pirate stories with larger-than-life heroes.

My thanks to author D.A. Holdsworth for providing me with a complimentary copy of “The Tale of Admiral Benbow”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The digital version of this book is currently available on Kindle Unlimited.

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