The Jazz Elephants

by Paul Beardmore

The Jazz Elephants is a delightful, extravagant comic fantasia – and an original and deeply perceptive study of freedom of expression and modern bureaucratic obsession.Rumpus Pumpus and Finta Fanta, late of the African savanna, have become bored with gawping at tourists from the rather limited confines of the Elephant House in London Zoo. They are not, they feel, able to exercise their finer talents – talking and trumpeting, amongst others – to full advantage. Escape is the only alternative – and escape they do. Their ingenious breakout leads them to an encounter with another refugee from a restrictive life…Henri Coulisse is on the run from the sinister clutches of the esoteric guild of the Worshipful Company of Bell Founders and Organ Grinders. The penalties for deserting the guild (especially on the day of the Burst of Spring celebrations) are so severe that nobody has done it for four hundred and thirty-one years. But then no-one, before Henri, nursed a burning ambition to become a jazz trombonist…Who better, then, to fill the vacancies at The Splurge jazz club in Soho than the runaway trumpeting elephants and deserting Henri? Under Henri’s guidance, the trio establish themselves as London’s latest musical sensation, attracting hordes of jazz lovers and, unhappily, the attentions of the Vice Squad, the irate Founders and Grinders, the Home Office, and the zoo keepers. Will Rumpus and Finta end up, again, behind bars? Will Henri be walled up alive and condemned to live on a diet of mutton and port? Not if a certain civil servant and an extremely important royal personage have anything to do with it…

418 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 1993

Reviews

[Katrine Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most wonderful read.
I found a dog-eared and stain-marred copy of this book on a shelf in a hostel during a long backpacking trip in India, and am so happy that I chose it despite its unaesthetic appearance.

Right from the get go it had me hooked, and it took me less than 2 days to read it. It is quite simply a enchanting and irreproachable work of fantasy.
I defy anyone not to instantly fall in love with the two main characters Rumpus Pumpus and Finta Fanta, who after cleverly escaping a life of mundane monotony behind bars are taking the world by storm as jazz musicians. Oh, and they are elephants!

I've never before or since read such an original delightful conceptive story.

[Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book and nice to read. Surprisingly realistic considering the story is about jazz elephants.

[Cara Noyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and original story!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The elephants are marvelously intelligent! Didn't care for the dry bits in the organ house, but all else was a blast.