An Audience With an Elephant

by Rogers, Byron

• ISBN13: 9781854107862
• ISBN10: 1854107860
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Aurum Pr Ltd

Summary

An Audience with an Elephant is a compendium of journeys to the heart of the strange and distant land of Britain. Byron Rogers meets the last Turkish POW in British hands -- an ancient tortoise captured at Gallipoli and now resident in Great Yarmouth -- and the teenaged elephant who has opened more fetes and supermarkets than any TV celebrity. Here, too, are an octogenarian triathlete, a man who fell off a church, and the last hangman in his untroubled retirement. Whether riding the 'ghost' train to Stalybridge, accompanying the last tramp through the wilder reaches of Wales, or recounting his strange commission to write speeches for the Prince of Wales, Byron Rogers chronicles a secret history of Britain that is touching, hilarious, even magical. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Speak to the Animals
The Tortoise and the Great War	p. 2
An Audience with an Elephant	p. 7
Wales
It Came as a Big Surprise	p. 14
The Lost Children	p. 21
The Last Tramp	p. 28
The Lost Lands	p. 40
Roman Twilight	p. 49
R.S. Thomas	p. 58
Moments
Who Wrote This Stuff?	p. 66
Nude	p. 82
When a Young Man's Dreams Expire	p. 85
Singles Weekend	p. 91
The Middle of England
Mixed Emotions	p. 100
A Man Who Fell to Earth	p. 103
The Riddle of Brixworth	p. 106
Last of England's Village Voices	p. 114
England and a Wake	p. 121
Norman St John Stevas Chooses a Title	p. 130
Listening for England	p. 132
Heroes
Race Against Time	p. 136
Mr Sparry Entertains	p. 144
The Examinee	p. 149
Glutton for Punishment	p. 155
The Cricketer	p. 160
Relics of Wars Past
The Big Bang	p. 164
Bunker	p. 171
The Bomb Factory	p. 175
Airbase	p. 182
Fantasies
Up the Workers! (If We Can Find Any...)	p. 192
The Duchess	p. 198
The Butler of Britain	p. 207
Ghost Train to Stalybridge	p. 215
Dead Writers Society	p. 224
Secret Garden, Private Grief	p. 234
The Last of Things
The Gallows Humorist	p. 246
End of an Era	p. 255
A Ghost in the Church	p. 258
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.