A woman from Peel has just become a published, professional translator with the release of a new Portuguese novella in English.

Kirsty Pierce, aged 25, who went to Queen Elizabeth II High School, translated ’A Treacherous Voyage’ by author Nuno Morais, which she described as ’very much an adventure story, somewhere in the hazy boundary between sci-fi and fantasy and an absolutely charming read’.

It follows the story of Duarte Menezes, a naval engineer and creator of the ship NMP DEUS on its inaugural voyage to the four corners of the globe in order to showcase its fantastic potential to possible clients.

However, half-way to Australia, fate intervenes in the form of a high magnitude submarine earthquake, which thrusts him, along with the many passengers and crew members of the DEUS into an adventure far beyond the world they know.

Kirsty completed the translation quickly.

She was initially contacted by the author in October 2020 and was able to submit the final translation by Christmas Eve.

She first became interested in languages when she began studying French and German at QEII, being taught by Hazel Kelly.

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In year 8 [ages 12-13] she remembers translating the lyrics of ’Honey Honey’ by Abba into several different languages, to use it as a revision tool.

She added: ’I enjoyed it so much that it became a regular thing I did for fun.

’I always liked that languages could be a bit like a puzzle with rules you could apply to make sense of something.

’My uncle has lived in Japan for almost his entire adult life and I remember when I was quite little he introduced me to a bit of Japanese, which was endlessly fascinating but very difficult [especially for a 10 year old] and so perhaps the love of playing with language was in me even then.’

After graduating from QEII, Kirsty went on to study Portuguese and German at the University of Edinburgh.

It was during her time studying in Scotland that she also went on to start her own translation business, Kirsty Pierce Translations.

This meant that alongside her university studies, Kirsty had also already started working as a professional translator at the age of 19.

She explained: ’While I thoroughly enjoy my work running my business and translating medical, legal, advertising and administrative documents [among many other things] my dream has always been to become one of the very few people to make a success of translating works of literature into the English language.

’So you can imagine my delight when I was contacted by Nuno Morais, who was looking to team up in order to publish his novella for the English-speaking market.’

Kirsty now lives in Bathgate, Scotland, running the translation business and promoting the release of the book.

Before the pandemic, she would make frequent visits home to her parents and siblings in Peel.

The book is available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.