Sophy Roberts

I'm a British journalist and author. I love books that combine history, travel and reportage. I search for the untold stories that only reveal themselves when you travel slowly and knock on doors. Most of all, I'm drawn to people, and the complex, enigmatic memories each of us hold.

My first book, 'The Lost Pianos of Siberia', was published in 2020. It was a 'Sunday Times' book of the year. My second book, 'A Training School for Elephants', is another unusual quest, threading lost history with modern reportage in India, Iraq, DRC, Tanzania and Belgium. Following an 1879 journey that four elephants from Pune made to Africa’s Great Lakes, it's a reckoning with colonial ambitions gone berserk. In the upcoming months, I'll post behind-the-scenes video and photographs from the journeys I made on the book’s eponymous website.

For more on my work, including a podcast that explores writing, photography and film-making focused on the art of travel, look for ‘Gone To Timbuktu’.