Writer Andrew Motion, England's former poet laureate, is taking a new generation of readers back to "Treasure Island" in his latest book, which follows the characters from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure.

In Silver: Return to Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins is four decades older and runs an inn with his son Jim, who meets an unusual girl on the river that runs by his home.

Natty is the daughter of Long John Silver and has what turns out to be an irresistible proposal for young Jim: to return to Treasure Island and seek the treasure abandoned by their fathers.

Motion says the book, which was recently published in the United States, was prompted partly by his desire to revisit the original and to show that Stevenson deserved to be valued more.

- Reuters