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Denis Piat, author of Pirates and Corsairs in Mauritius and Sur la Route des Épice, Ile Maurice
Written by Administrator Wednesday, 02 December 2009 23:37
Denis Piat was born in Mauritius in 1943. He started his professionnal careeer in the aviation industry, travel and tourism in 1963 with Rogers & Co. Ltd. After setting up two companies in this industry, namely White Sand Travel & Tours and Concorde Travel & Tours, on behalf of two Mauritian commercial groups, Ireland Blyth Ltd and West East Ltd, he was appointed in 1978, Area Manager of Kenya Airways in Paris covering France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg.
He successfully managed the airline’s Paris office until the closing down of the office in 1998 by the new magement in Nairobi.
As early as 1970, whilst in Mauritius, he was interested in the history of his native island and started a collection of rare books on the Mascarene region.
After settling down in Paris with his wife and two children, he enlarged his collection to include lithographies, maps and old engravings on Pondichery, Isle de France (Mauritius) and the neighbouring islands of Madagascar, Réunion and The Seychelles.
Those two remarkable collections of rare books and engravings resulted from his regular research. Subsequently, Denis Piat had the idea to combine these two sources of information into one book : «Sur la Route des Épices, l’Ile Maurice» (On the Spice Route, Mauritius) published in 1994 by Les éditions du Pacifique-Paris. A reviewed and improved version of the book was published in 2004 under the author’s guidance *.
In 2006, he was jointly responsible, with Dr. Jean-Claude Rey, for the reprint of Pierre Poivre’s memoirs (1797) «Mémoires d’un Botaniste et Explorateur», published by La Découvrance éditions-La Rochelle, to which he added a biography of Poivre and several notes. This new edition was initiated by the «Association des Amis de Mahé de La Bourdonnais – Paris».
Denis Piat continued to enlarge his collection of old engravings and rare books on French corsairs and pirates of the Indian Ocean, items of personal interest. Besides, having developped a very keen interest in shipwrecks around Mauritius, he decided to write a book on these three subjects.
The book, «Pirates & Corsaires à l’île Maurice», translated into English language by Mervyn North-Coombes * and published by Christian le Comte Éditions-Mauritius in December 2007, is well researched and illustrated with documents from the author’s personal collection.
Denis Piat is vice-president of the Association des Amis de François Mahé de La Bourdonnais (www.labourdonnais-association.org>, and Management Committee member of Association France Maurice
* Editor’s notes :-
Both books Sur la Route des Épices, l’Ile Maurice and Pirates & Corsairs in Mauritius may be obtained from Librairie Bookcourt, Waterfront Caudan, Port-Louis, Mauritius
