greta paradine-palmer indian elephant lecturing services - lectures which tell the story of her travels from kettering, england and the regions of indea in pursuit of her interest in indian elephant trappings - indian embroidery, jhools, howdahs, mehrangarh museum jodhpur, indian elephant, indian elephant decoration, ganapati, ganesha, erawat, black-stone elephone, black stone elephant, elephas maximus indicus, indian war elephants, indian elephant history, patara, payal, pounchi, gaddi, chimta, royal howdah, elephant paintings, halora, gaj nayak, gang a jal, embroidery stitches, embroidery patterns, nettipattam, aravattam, touring india...

I was born in Northampton and educated at the Notre Dame High School.

While working as a Secretary at the offices of Manfield Shoe factory I met John Paradine-Palmer who was then auditing the companies' accounts. I invited him to the Annual Staff Ball and we were married in 1958, after he had completed his National Service.

I have two sons and four grandchildren. In 1970 I moved to Kettering where I ran the retail garage we had bought there. This is now run by our younger son, Nigel and his wife Diane, giving myself and my husband time to travel extensively.

In 1986 we went to the Far East, and I fell in love with the life, colour and culture there.

Since 1994 we have been to India many times and I have concentrated on studying elephant regailia in the Indian Sub-Continent. Now that my husband has retired as a director of the Rowlandson Organisation we plan to travel the world and seek yet more information on elephant trappings which has become an abiding interest.

Meanwhile I have written a book entitled 'Jhools in the Dust' which depicts my travels from Kettering, England to the various regions within India. (visit my book web site here).