Flight By Elephant: The Untold Story of World War Two's Most Daring Jungle Rescue Author: Visit Amazon's Andrew Martin Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0007461526 | Format: EPUB
Flight By Elephant: The Untold Story of World War Two's Most Daring Jungle Rescue Description
Review
From the reviews of ‘Flight by Elephant’:
‘A delightful, true-life Boys’ Own adventure, brilliantly told with delicious, dry with by a writer in full command of his subject’ James Delingpole, Mail on Sunday
‘Andrew Martin's ‘Flight By Elephant’ is defiantly Boy's Own stuff … a great adventure’ Ben East, Observer
‘Martin’s book is spirited, readable account of a daring rescue straight out of a Boy’s Own adventure’ Financial Times
‘Flight by Elephant is at its best in the occasional flashes of scene-setting’ James Owen, Daily Telegraph
About the Author
Andrew Martin grew up in Yorkshire. After qualifying as a barrister, he won The Spectator Young Writer of the Year Award, 1988. Since, he has written for The Guardian, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, the Independent and Granta, among many other publications. His columns have appeared in the Independent on Sunday and the New Statesman. His Jim Stringer novels – railway thrillers – have been published by Faber and Faber since 2002.
- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate (June 6, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0007461526
- ISBN-13: 978-0007461523
- Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
I went into this book with some baseline knowledge of Burma's role in WWII, after reading Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World WarII, which is generally about American forces in Burma, with emphasis on one man's plight there. Prior to that book, I never knew much, if anything really, about Burma, and even less about its role in WWII. "Flight by Elephant" is a story about an exodus through a remote section of the Burmese jungle to escape the Japanese, who were blowing through Burma and taking control of various cities as they progressed north. The book is largely from the perspective of the British, even though they were accompanied by various servants and assistants who were from India or Burma. Many of the individuals featured in the book are British army, but "army" implies a cohesive unit and survival training. This was not really the case, given the fact that they were evacuating entire towns (including pregnant women) through dangerous terrain. The individuals featured in the book are of varying ages and are, in reality, regular citizens trying to escape the Japanese using a somewhat spur-of-the-moment plan and through an unforgiving jungle.
The descriptions of the perils of the jungle were excellent, and the role of the elephants was fascinating (though it's not until you're about 35-40% of the way through the book before you really get to meet the elephants and see how their presence was so helpful...they are mentioned briefly prior to that, but it's not until later in the book when we see their day-to-day activities).
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