Patrick Scrivenor
No Elephant in the Room
Ivory: Power and Poaching in Africa
By Keith Somerville
Hurst & Co 390pp £20
The sombre probability is that by the end of this century few large land animals will survive in the wild. Especially at risk is the African elephant, which is now critically endangered. It is the elephant’s misfortune to possess a commodity worth (at current black market rates) $1,500 a pound. Keith Somerville’s book is an account of the part played by ivory in African history and a detailed survey of the African elephant from the end of the colonial era. It makes grim reading.
Pre-colonial African elephant numbers have been estimated at 26 million. The first pan-African survey, in 1979, found that there were just 1.3 million of them – a pretty damning indictment of mankind’s rapacity. During the 1980s elephants were lost to ivory poaching at such a rate that by
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm