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by Sophy Roberts
Out of a sidelined, colonial-era expedition in Africa comes a new history of cruelty, deception and adventure from the acclaimed author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia.
In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa's resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants—if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants.
Following in the footsteps of the four elephants, Roberts pieces together the story of this long-forgotten expedition, in travels that take her to Belgium, Iraq, India, Tanzania, and Congo. The storytelling brings to life a compelling cast of historic characters and modern voices, from ivory dealers to Catholic nuns, set against rich descriptions of the landscapes travelled. In an original weave of past and present, she digs deep into historic records revealing an extraordinary—and enduring—story of colonial greed, hypocrisy, and folly.
"A little-known episode of colonial African history paired with a conceptually problematic personal account." —Kirkus Reviews
"Luminous… Reflective, watchful, calm, Roberts is such a vivid travel writer that you forget what a brilliant historian she is. She has the water-diviner's gift for stories in unlikely places. And then, through research in archives as well as on the ground, for uncovering sparky details that bring the story to life. Her conversations with everyone she meets, from hospitable nuns to a chief in a red fez, who pores over the original expedition maps with her at a Chinese restaurant in Dodoma, give her narrative a glow of sympathetic charm." —The Guardian
"A superb, thoughtful quest into the heart of Africa." —Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment
"A cautionary tale from the early days of the Scramble for Africa, but poignant and scholarly too. Roberts writes beautifully." —Thomas Pakenham, author of The Scramble for Africa
"Deeply-researched. Brings to life a bizarre and long-forgotten story of Africa with empathy, intriguing encounters and memorable characters, not least the elephants themselves." —Luke Pepera, author of Motherland: A Journey through 500,000 Years of African Culture and Identity
This information about A Training School for Elephants was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sophy Roberts is a British writer whose work focuses on the wild places from Papua New Guinea to the Congo. Her first book was The Lost Pianos of Siberia. She began her career assisting the writer Jessica Mitford, and trained in journalism at Columbia University. She regularly contributes to the Financial Times and Conde Nast Traveler.
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