He is one of the most iconic villains in literature - but the idea for Long John Silver wasn’t totally plucked from Robert Louis Stevenson’s imagination. Apparently, Stevenson’s friend and mentor, the poet William Ernest Henley, inspired Stevenson’s depiction of his famous pirate character.

Like Long John Silver, Henley walked with a crutch and had a commanding presence. He probably didn’t have a parrot on his shoulder, though. But the missing leg and parrot that Stevenson gave Silver went on to influence the image of the pirate in pop culture.

Everyone knows the best villains aren’t just straight-up-evil, and that’s what makes the antagonist of Treasure Island so compelling as a character. Charming, cunning and morally ambiguous, Long John Silver is a representation of the complexity of human nature itself.