Taken

Thanks you so-so-much to everyone who has donated to the Taken project - anonymous or otherwise. We are now at 68% of our fund-raising target.

It was a single sentence in a book read ten years ago – and two very different close-up encounters with elephants – that led me into an epic quest to research and complete Taken, a novel like no other.

The sentence briefly mentioned a mad scheme by King Leopold of Belgium to ship Indian elephants to the east coast of Africa, then walk them across the continent, to begin working in the forests of the Congo. This became the story stream in Taken, narrated by Pulmulla.

The two elephant encounters: I contacted Andrew Coers, elephant-keeper at Auckland Zoo. We spent an afternoon discussing Indian elephants in the company of Burma (Andrew insisted), while zoo visitors looked in at the threesome in the enclosure. Later Andrew, some young zoo visitors and I helped Burma with her paintings. Abstract and gestural - just like mine!

Then while walking in the Timbavati, South Africa, I came upon a group of wild elephants unexpectedly, and was mock-charged by a young male; but instead I kept an eye on his mother behind. She was un-fussed, so the incident passed with indulgent smiles all round – including from the mother elephant.

This elephant lore - and more - is woven in Taken.

This will help us with more targeted marketing for Taken in New Zealand and Australia

We've arrived! Thank you to everyone who has contributed so generously to Taken. The manuscript will soon be on its way to the publishers.

This is where we've got to on Biligiri's journey in Taken.

Thanks for all your help so far in nearing our fund-raising goal!

Our fund-raising journey continues apace with your great help! Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to Taken so far!

We are at 89% of our funding target. On the metaphorical map of Biligiri's journey, that puts us among the ambas, the extra-ordinary hills of Ethiopia. We've reached Antalo, which lies between the ancient stelae at Axum and hewed-out rock churches of Lalibela. The extra-ordinary journey continues!

Thanks again for your support.

This is the scene at Annesley Bay, and the specially-constructed port of Zoulla as the army of the Abyssinia Expedition lands its thousands of soldiers, horses, mules - and the 44 elephants.

All to go free 45 hostages, held in the highlands of Ethiopia.

Soon you will be able to read the full story.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Taken project so far!

We've reached 80% of the funding target for Taken - and Biligiri and the other 43 elephants have reached the coast of Africa, at the port of Zoulla (in present-day Eritrea).

It's a place that's hardly welcoming: Biligiri describes it as having "the shelter and succour of a blade of shining steel."

Things are about to get world-class interesting - and they're to meet an extra-ordinary cast of characters, human and otherwise.

Thank you all who have contributed, to get us this far!

Now Biligiri and his companions on the ships of the Abyssinia Expedition can smell a new country to their left, and another to the north. The scents of cinammon, frankincense meet them for the first time. Along with animals they know - camels, donkeys, goats. And elephants that could be the same - but are entirely different. What strange place is this?

With huge thanks to the seed donors who have gotten Taken off to a flying start! By the official launch date of the campaign, the book project already had one-eighth of its funding secured.

You can see how far along we are on the journey of Biligiri, his beloved Shreemayi and the other 42 elephants in 1868. (This is one of the strands of the novel). Thanks again!

Thanks to everyone who has helped us get to past halfway in our fund-raising journey!

Good day all. Thanks to everyone who has donated to the Taken project!

We are now 56% of our way to our fund-raising target.

Although the Abyssinia Expedition and its elephants never stepped ashore there, they now have island of Socotra and its mysterious Dragons' Blood Trees, to port.

There's another thread in the stories in Taken.

On their trek across East Africa - what is now Tanzania - in 1879, Pulmulla, Mahangi, Naderbux and Sosankalli encounter these rock paintings. To me, and to them, they look remarkably like Indian elephants...

"There is so much patter in the dust of this land, a noise in the earth – but more so than in India, I cannot tell. Only here there seems to be even more in the traffic of history. Ancient and in the now, there is traffic overlapping, a syncopated rhythm of comings and goings," Pulmulla records.

"And we have hardly come to the limpid lakes whose pattering waves beckon us through the soles of our feet; or the ethereal Mountains of the Moon yet. Or the Mitumba Mountains, beyond which the watershed of the great Congo River begins."

Please contribute to this Boosted campaign, so we can get Taken published and bring these stories to the world.

A reminder that there are other elephant's stories in the novel Taken. Like that of Tant-Meisie, the only lonley elephant touring with the Boswell-Wilkie Circus, throughout southern Africa in the mid 1950s. Here's an image from that time and place...

Hi all - today we hit the halfway mark in our fund-raising goal. This takes our metaphorical journey of the elephants of the 1868 Abyssinia Campaign halfway to the mountain fortress of Maqdala. A great big elephantine thank you to all our donors - including the Saints Anonymous. Imagine 31 elephants and their mahouts in the holds of sailing ships, stretching their trunks above the deck height to get fresh air. And yes, elephants do get sea sick...Together we will bring the remarkable stories of Taken to the world!

A further 13 elephants, including the grumpy old BurtonRichard were loaded onto ships at Bombay...

Biligiri, Shreemayi and 29 other elephants were purchased for the Abyssinia Expedition at the famous livestock fair at Sonepur Mela, the biggest in all of India.

A heartfelt thanks to all who have contributed to Taken so quickly! Within three days, you have helped advance the journey of Biligiri, Shreemayi and their mahouts Aakash, Chandrani (his wife) and Yogesh, to past Ceylon - as Sri Lanka was called then.

Their story is one of the strands of Taken, which explores the eons-old relationship between elephants and humans. So far, Biligiri and co have been bought at the famous livestock fair at Sonepur Mela, at the confluence of the sacred Ganges, Ghaghara, Gandak and Sone Rivers. The elephants and their entourage have walked to Calcutta, and have been loaded on ships, where they waited for the weather to improve before sailing to Abyssinia. Their adventures, and all the others in the book, are just beginning! Thanks for coming along with us...