HELD HOSTAGE BY PIRATES

hile I was writing , which explores how surfing spread across the globe, I happened across some research about pirates. So my head was full of pirate history when Somali pirates started working off the coast of East Africa around 2008. I had moved to Germany by then to work as a journalist at Spiegel Online, and I ended up writing news stories about Somalia. The idea to write a book about piracy had occurred to me, but I was cautious for obvious reasons. What clinched it was the trial of 10 Somali pirates in Germany in 2010. They had tried to capture a German cargo ship called the MV Taipan. It was the first