The Last Elephants – is the name prophetic? We hope not, but the signs are worrying.

This book is a narrative and photographic backup to the Africa-wide Great Elephant Census of 2016. Shockingly, the census found that there to be fewer than 450 000 elephants in Africa today, well down from the three to five million 100 years ago. In many of their home ranges, elephant numbers have dropped by a third in just seven years. The census found that, on average, an elephant is now being killed every 15 to 20 minutes.

This book tells the stories of the continent's elephants and the dangers they face through the eyes of over 40 experts, researchers, writers, conservationists, poets and park rangers throughout Africa. They cover most of the prime elephant ranges from Timbuktu to South Africa; from Nigeria to Tanzania and are supported by images from some of the continent’s finest photographers.

This is the tale of two cities. One is beautiful beyond imagining, known since its beginnings as the fairest cape in all the world. Here tourists come in their millions to lounge on beaches, scale misty peaks and dine in fine restaurants.

The other has a different reputation: that of being one of the most dangerous cities in the world where police need bullet-proof vests and sometimes army backup.

This is a story of the second city. Here gangs of young men rule the night with heavy calibre handguns defending turf for drug lords, dispensing heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, cannabis and fear. It’s about the crimes they do and the crimes done to them, why it is so and how it came to be like this.

It is also the story of the wrongs done to a community whose resilience, courage and sense of humour hides a sadness for the injustice of their history and the future of their children.

In these thought-provoking, often outrageous but always beautifully crafted stories, you’ll discover why your dog barks, where you cat goes at night and meet the man who learned the science of invisibility.

There are real dragons to be found, whales that sing 1 600-kilometre songs, impossible seeming truths such as, if connected end on end, the DNA in your body could stretch to the sun and back, and the fact that – in speed per body length – a humming bird is faster than the Space Shuttle.

I don't take the world for granted. And the deeper I looked, the stranger it became. What I found will make your head spin.

But be warned, this book are a danger to the world you think you know.