Sacred Elephant by Heathcote Williams

Sacred Elephant by Heathcote Williams

Sacred Elephant is a moving portrayal of the world's largest land-living mammal. The poem explores the life of elephants in their natural habitat and in captivity and details their relentless destruction at the hands of man. The poem is accompanied by a fascinating compilation of facts and figures from elephant history and is sensitively underscored with classical music.

Heathcote Williams is a poet, playwright, author, and actor. His first book, The Speakers, was published in 1964. A portrait of the orators at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, it was greeted with critical acclaim. He went on to write his epic poems Whale Nation, Autogedden, Sacred Elephant, and Falling for a Dolphin, which were all published by Jonathan Cape and released as audiobooks, and have won numerous awards. Heathcote is also an award-winning playwright. His first full length play, AC/DC, won a hat trick of prestigious awards: the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Play, the George Devine Award, and the John Whiting Award. His later play, The Local Stigmatic, first played at the Royal Court in 1966 and was made into a film by Al Pacino. In 2011, Roy Hutchins launched a show of Heathcote's newer poems entitled Zanzibar Cats which has had a UK Tour and a run in Edinburgh where it won the prestigious Herald Archangel Award. Heathcote lives in Oxford, England with his wife, Diana Senior.