The Turquoise Elephant

‘Meet Augusta Macquarie: Her Excellency, patron of the arts, formidable matriarch, environmental vandal.’


Inside her triple-glazed compound, Augusta shields herself from the catastrophic elements, bathing in the classics and campaigning for the reinstatement of global reliance on fossil fuels. Outside, the world lurches from one environmental cataclysm to the next. Meanwhile, her sister, Olympia, thinks the best way to save endangered species is to eat them. Their niece Basra is intent on making a difference–but how? Can you save the world one blog at a time?


Stephen Carleton’s shockingly black, black, black political farce won the 2015 Griffin Award. It’s urgent, contemporary and perilously close to being real.