Elephant Fiction

They say that diplomacy is a gentle art. That mastering it is a lifetime's work. But you do need a certain inclination in that direction. It's not something you can just pick up on the job. A few days ago Sam Vimes was a copper - an important copper, true - chief of police - but still, at his core, a policeman. But today he is an ambassador - to the mysterious, fat-rich country of Uberwald. Today, Sam Vimes is also a man on the run. At some point during his ambassadorship, things went very wrong. It's snowing. It's freezing.

Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. In the Depression era, Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers' "Most Spectacular Show on Earth". There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world: Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus' animal trainer); and Rosie, the seemingly untrainable elephant Jacob cares for.

When Hank's class takes a field trip to the zoo, he quickly gets lost after his partner (and nemesis) ditches him. Unable to read the map, Hank wanders and finds himself locked in a habitat with Elsie, an elephant recently rescued and kept isolated. He begins a game of soccer with her, and they become fast friends. But when Hank notices how lonely Elsie is, he's determined to help her find her own animal friends.

Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff-top. For here, many years earlier, there had been a tragic accident: the broken body of a woman was discovered on the rocks at the foot of the cliff. This was followed by the grisly discovery of two more bodies, a husband and wife, shot dead. But who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder?

Dr Daniel Armstrong, ecologist and documentary maker, has dedicated his life to protecting Africa's animals and rain forests. But when a gang of poachers murders his childhood friend, Chief Warden of the National Park, and steals the government-protected ivory stores, Daniel's quest of passion becomes one of revenge....

The bedtime audiobook parents are raving about! The author of the global best seller The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep is back with another story using all-new child-tested, parent-approved techniques to make bedtime a sweet and tender end to each day. Your child joins Ellen the Elephant on a journey through a magical forest that leads to sleep. Along the way they meet different fantastical characters and have calming experiences that will help your child to relax and slip into slumber quickly.

When a man's favourite elephant vanishes, the balance of his whole life is subtly upset. A couple's midnight hunger pangs drive them to hold up a McDonald's. A woman finds she is irresistible to a small green monster that burrows through her front garden. An insomniac wife wakes up in a twilight world of semi-consciousness in which anything seems possible - even death. In every one of these stories Murakami makes a determined assault on the normal.

Sam Vines is a man on the run. Yesterday he was a duke, a chief of police, and the ambassador to the mysterious, fat-rich country of Uberwald. Now he has nothing but his native wit and the gloomy trousers of Uncle Vanya (don't ask). It's snowing. It's freezing. And if he can't make it through the forest to civilization, there's going to be a terrible war. But there are monsters on his trail. They're bright. They're fast. They're werewolves. And they're catching up.

As the Second World War rages, the Japanese Imperial Army enters Burma, and the British rulers prepare to flee. But the human legacy of the British Empire will be left behind in the shape of 62 Anglo-Burmese children, born to local women after affairs with foreign men. Half castes, they are not acknowledged by either side, and they are to be abandoned with no one to protect them.

It’s 1944. Elizabeth's father is fighting with the German army on the eastern front. Her mother works at Dresden zoo, where her favourite animal is a young elephant named Marlene. When the zoo director tells her the dangerous animals must be shot to prevent them running amok when the town is bombed, Elizabeth's mother moves Marlene into the back garden to save her… and then the bombs start to fall.

Unusual requests are commonplace at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, but so are very ordinary ones, such as a plea for money: when a distant cousin calls on Mma Ramotswe to ask for help with another relative's hip operation, tricky questions arise in regard to family responsibility. Mma Makutsi and Mr J. L. B Matekoni are far from convinced of the merits of the request, but it is hard for Mma Ramotswe, with a heart her size, to turn people away.

Seb Brigandshaw has worked tirelessly to carve out a life of promise in Africa, driven by his dream of securing a lasting heritage for his children. His eldest son, Harry, stands on the brink of a bright future, having spent three years at Oxford. And during the summer of 1907, a blossoming romance with Lucinda at her Dorset family home offers Harry the hope of a life far removed from his father's past struggles.

It is the juiciest piece of gossip the citizens of Norwich have heard for a long time. The ruthless Richard de Fontenel is himself the victim of robbery. In addition to two priceless golden elephants that he was using to lure the beautiful lady Adelaide into marriage, his steward Hermer is also missing. Onto the scene arrive soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret who are meant to adjudicate on a land dispute, but they also become involved in the hunt for the thief. But is Hermer the steward really missing or has something altogether more sinister happened?

Chaya, a no-nonsense, outspoken hero, leads her friends and a gorgeous elephant on a noisy, fraught, joyous adventure through the jungle where revolution is stirring and leeches lurk. Will stealing the queen’s jewels be the beginning or the end of everything for the intrepid gang?

A modern classic, Elmer the Colourful Patchwork Elephant has been a nursery favourite since his creation in 1989 and has sold over four million copies around the world. Elmer is not your normal grey elephant - his colourful exuberance cannot be contained for long!

A classic fable from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, read by Johnny Morris. Have you ever wondered how and why the animals came to be as they are? In these magical tales, drawn from stories he heard as a child in India as well as on folk traditions he later collected all over the world, Rudyard Kipling gives some wonderfully imaginative explanations.

Number one best-selling author David Walliams presents his very first picture book for children of 3 and up. What’s big, blue, bossy, and turns up uninvited? A slightly annoying elephant, of course! Introducing a magnificently warm and funny picture book from two remarkable talents.

Aung lives in a small village in Burma (Malaysia) and spends his free time tending to the village elephants. Beyond his village, the world is at war, and invading Japanese troops are on their way.

Navsari, India. Penniless and trapped in a loveless marriage, Nirmala spends her days anxiously caring for her sick young son, Varun. Looming over Nirmala’s impoverished home is an imposing mansion built by her grandfather, and from its balcony her cruel aunt scorns them, refusing to help in any way. But when a mysterious letter addressed to her long-dead father arrives from Zimbabwe, it opens a door to a past Nirmala never knew existed and a future she never imagined possible.

The Memory of an Elephant is an epic saga told by an aging African elephant as he makes a last, perilous journey to find the humans who rescued him as an orphan some fifty years ago. Interwoven with his narrative are the tumultuous lives of the family who raised and then lost him.