Indian Ocean

It’s unbelievable but true! Born on the same day in the same small German circus town, young Bram and his elephant, Modoc, had a lifelong friendship that spanned more than eight decades. But it was never easy. From the breakup of the circus to the shipwreck in the Indian Ocean that nearly cost them their lives, the bond between the boy and the elephant survived the most unimaginable trials. This true story of their adventures together and their eventual rise to circus stardom in the Ringling Brothers Circus will be a treasure for animal lovers everywhere.

Murder and Mayhem in Mauritius presents a selection of historical crime stories ranging from the trial and execution of rebellious slaves, to tragedies arising from adultery and love triangles, and desperate acts of exploited workers. Alongside the better known cases of career criminal Nanard and exiled Malagasy noble Ratsitatane, this collection introduces readers to the tale of the Mauritian attorney who ended up in a Nazi concentration camp, and to the Indian workers on a Chagos atoll who murdered their manager and hijacked a ship, among other sometimes moving, sometimes shocking true ...

In terms of geopolitics, perhaps the most seminal event of the Middle Ages was the successful Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1453. The city had been an imperial capital as far back as the fourth century when Constantine the Great shifted the power center of the Roman Empire there effectively establishing two almost equally powerful halves of antiquity’s greatest empire. Constantinople would continue to serve as the capital of the Byzantine Empire even after the Western half of the Roman Empire collapsed in the late fifth century.