The Elephant in the Other Room is a book of humorous poetry written by Dick Dixon and illustrated by the excellent French artist Reine Mazoyer. You may be wondering whether it is really necessary to write this kind of thing, when there are so many other pressing causes demanding attention in the world. Well, despite the shocking things that are always going on all around us, and particularly at the moment, surely there is always a place for reading books that can give us hope, amuse us a little and demonstrate to the reader that they are among many with a common cause: that of delighting in and celebrating our shared humanity, even if it is often a study in imperfection – and often involves animals! That is what the books attempt to do, by reviewing the human condition, possibly from an unusual angle or distance, and sometimes from ‘over the horizon’, using a twisted mirror.