A TRAINING SCHOOL FOR ELEPHANTS

412pp., illus., maps, paperback, Doubleday, London, 2025

ISBN: 9780857528384

Sophy Roberts retraces the journey made by four tamed Asian elephants from Pune through Africa from Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika, and back.

In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium commissioned the Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. Leopold's aim was to use Indian elephants and their handlers to catch and train African elephants and use the elephants as a supply line to transport Congo’s wealth out to Belgian ships. Carter's mission was a failure - the four elephants he brought with him all died.

"A beautiful, intelligent and heartfelt book, a brilliantly researched account of an imperial fever dream alongside a no less feverish contemporary journey" The Sunday Times, UK

"A rich, engrossing tapestry of greed and disregard for life, human and animal, that stretches across continents and across tine ... Few write as convincingly as Roberts, this is her as only she can write. Amal Chatterjee, author of Across the Lakes

British journalist Sophy Roberts  is the author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia.