According to the labels stuck on their foreheads, these two small elephants are called Sohoni and Sarwate.

For anybody who sweltered through it, the summer of 1976 in the UK will always be remembered as one of the hottest and driest.

The whole rationale of the white elephant is that it should be utterly useless. Venerated, perhaps, but in practical terms a burdensome extravagance designed to ruin the recipient.

In many ways, this is the archetypal, the original elephant. Not because of its age or the length of time that I’ve had it but because of its provenance.