The perils of an outside travel writer looking in

Elephant Complex: Travels in Sri Lanka By John Gimlette Quercus, pp. 432, Rs 449 John Gimlette is a winner of the Shiva Naipaul Prize and a celebrated British travel writer. The natural beauty of Sri Lanka’s wildlife parks, coasts and mountains, is legendary too. Putting those facts together, any reader would naturally expect Elephant Complex to be replete with finely-crafted adventure stories including some on one of the nation’s best-loved symbols: its elephant population.