Following on from the success of The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, Hesperus presents another collaboration between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Their legendary friendship resulted in a number of joint literary ventures, with Collins writing the second chapter in this book under Dickens' supervision. Inspired by the events of the Indian Rebellion in 1857, but wishing to distance himself from the context of India itself, Dickens chose to set his novella in Central America. Fascinating in its use of female heroines, The Perils of Certain English Prisoners is a rousing adventure story. On an island near the English colony of Belize, a silver mine is overrun by pirates. They murder a number of English colonists and take the remaining ones prisoner. In the diverting narrative that follows, the initiative of intrepid women prisoners enables the captives to escape.