In October 2024, Sergey Novikov's second book about the adventures of the French nobleman Michel de Grammont was published in a limited edition under the title "The Spanish Trail. Captain de Grammont". Without reaching a wide circle of readers, the book was sold out among the closest circle.

One of the first to read the new novel, a good friend of the writer expressed a humorous review, saying that it reads quickly, but is written somehow "too slowly".

The organizers of the Grammont club decided to find out from the author where this project came from and what is wrong with his creative activity, because it is obvious that the manuscripts of bestsellers are enthusiastically riveted on a typewriter in a matter of days. Then the stack of sheets is handed over to the publisher, and after a month or two, creaking his pen and mentally guessing where to spend the unheard-of fee, the creator of all this arbitrariness is already putting autographs on the freshly printed, freshly painted covers of thick volumes.

Let's figure it out.

Recently, the trend of transforming a work of art into a computer game has gained popularity. In our case, exactly the opposite happened.

At the beginning of the 21st century, fans of games about free conquerors of the seas took up the development of the computer game "Corsairs. The Story of a Pirate", which is a non-commercial addition to "Corsairs. The City of Lost Ships" (Seaward, Akella).

Then S. Novikov wrote several independent quests for this game, and he was offered to become the screenwriter of the main plot of the national French line, with the right to independently choose the main character. There were no problems with the adaptation of the character. The legendary captain entered the plot as if it were his own home. Word for word, and in early June 2008, to the joy of gamers, the game became freely available.

Here a paradox arose.

According to the available well-known sources, Michel de Grammont is a pirate, a nobleman, a native of Paris, a favorite of women, a chopper, a roughneck and, in general, a nice guy. But after the author of the script shoveled mountains of historical and pseudo-historical documentation in an attempt to get to the bottom of it, he involuntarily grabbed his head.

Michel de Grammont turned out to be not a simple nobleman, but a descendant of an ancient family of chivalry, originating in the 13th century from a feudal house founded by the highly respected Baron Guillot de Grange.

The Grange family gave the world at least fifty knights, dozens of barons, counts, marquises, and higher clergymen, and its antiquity was not inferior even to the monarchical family, which at that time was doing its best to contribute to the decline of the political and financial power of the feudal lords.

Michel François Sieur de Grammont, like that, with the particle "de" and no other, really ended up in the New World through a duel, but throughout his stay in the Caribbean he walked exclusively under the flag of his native homeland, fought and achieved remarkable successes for the good of his country, for which he was awarded the title of lieutenant of the king (a person who performs the duties of a monarch in a certain area) by Louis XIV.

The boundless trust of the most progressive crowned head in the history of Europe was also manifested in the appointment of de Grammont to the position of governor of the French part of the island of Hispaniola (Haiti). But due to unclear tragic circumstances, he did not have time to take up the duties of the governor.

Thus, Michel de Grammont had nothing to do with the bloody coastal brotherhood. Thus, the need arose to protect the reputation of a person and restore historical justice.

The first book "The Shipyard of Destiny" was written for 14 years. Of course, not one chapter per year. The plot was broken, torn, and sometimes work on it stopped for two or three years. And when the author, with a heavy heart, again took out the manuscript from the "long drawer" of the table and shook off the layer of dust from the already written chapters, he knew for sure - he would not be able to overcome this work, and it would definitely never be published.

Fortunately, he was wrong.

Summing up, I would like to add - despite the fact that the idea of ​​​​creating a book arose against the background of a fascination with corsair themes, the novel cannot be attributed to the genre of marine science. Here it is more about human relationships, friendship, love, curious life situations, and in general - about adventures.

As a historical reference: the only branch of the Grammont family that has survived to our time is considered to be the Grammont-Mélisé family, which received the title of marquis by transforming the land of Villers-Sexel into a marquisant. And now in this French commune, the architectural monuments are the Grammont castle and the Grammont hospital.

Grammont Castle