In May 1957 an advertisement in the
Personal Column of The Times caught Elephant Bill's eye. Butlin's
Ltd offered £1,000 in cash for the immediate safe transport of the
largest elephant in captivity from Butlin's Ayr, Scotland, to
Butlin's, Filey, Yorkshire.
Intrigued, he volunteered his services, as did 3,500 other people;
and not long after, he found himself engaged as elephant consultant,
with very ill-defined duties, to help Mr Willie Wilson of Glasgow
transport the elephant.
He begins his new book - and alas
his last one, for Elephant Bill died in August 1958 - with a
fascinating account of this journey, which was made the more
hazardous by the fact that Big Charlie, the tusker, was on 'musth' -
a condition which others underrated - and that the demands of
publicity ran counter to those of aerial management.
Condition: Light wear to boards, content clean and sharp, solidly
bound, fair dustjacket with some wear. Ex Library Book with usual
stamps etc, tape marks to front and back blank pages, chip to top
front blank pages, frontis page is a quarter loose. |
