Vicki Constantine Croke on a World War II elephant whisperer

'Elephant Company' by Vicki Constantine Croke
'Elephant Company' by Vicki Constantine Croke
Book cover courtesy of publisher

Vicki Constantine Croke's new book, "Elephant Company," tells the story of James Howard "Billy" Williams and his bond with the elephants who helped in Burma during World War II.

Williams was something of an elephant whisperer. Over time, his relationship with the animals turned him into a war hero known as Elephant Bill.

From The Boston Globe:

"Living day by day with elephants," Croke writes, Williams "absorbed their deeper more philosophical cues. In fact, he discovered in them the virtues he would work to develop in himself: courage, loyalty, the ability to trust (and the good sense to know when to be distrustful), fairness, patience, diligence, kindness and humor." In fact, Williams once told a reporter that he'd "learned more about life from elephants than I ever did from human beings."

Croke joins The Daily Circuit to discuss her book.

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