BOOK ONE
ELEPHANTS
Three GREAT AUNT ALICE’S GUIDE TO KNOWLEDGE
“Can you find my address book for me, Miss Livingstone?”
“It’s on your desk, Mrs. Oliver. In the left-hand corner.”
“I don’t mean that one,” said Mrs. Oliver. “That’s the one I’m using now. I mean my last one.
The one I had last year, or perhaps the one before that again.”
“Has it been thrown away, perhaps?” suggested Miss Livingstone.
“No, I don’t throw away address books and things like that because so often you want one. Imean some address that you haven’t copied into the new one. I expect it may be in one of thedrawers of the tallboys.”
Miss Livingstone was a fairly new arrival, replacing Miss Sedgwick. Ariadne Oliver missedMiss Sedgwick. Sedgwick knew so many things. She knew the places where Mrs. Oliversometimes put things, the kind of places Mrs. Oliver kept things in. She remembered the names ofpeople Mrs. Oliver had written nice letters to, and the names of people that Mrs. Oliver, goadedbeyond endurance, had written rather rude things to. She was invaluable¹, or rather, had beeninvaluable. “She was like—what was the book called?” Mrs. Oliver said, casting her mind back.
“Oh yes, I know—a big brown book. All Victorians had it. Enquire² Within Upon Everything. Andyou could too! How to take iron mark stains off linen³, how to deal with curdled⁴ mayonnaise, howto start a chatty letter to a bishop⁵. Many, many things. It was all there in Enquire Within UponEverything.” Great Aunt Alice’s great standby.
Miss Sedgwick had been just as good as Aunt Alice’s book. Miss Livingstone was not at all thesame thing. Miss Livingstone stood there always, very long-faced with a sallow skin, lookingpurposefully efficient. Every line of her face said “I am very efficient.” But she wasn’t really, Mrs.
Oliver thought. She only knew all the places where former literary employers of hers had keptthings and where she clearly considered Mrs. Oliver ought to keep them.
“What I want,” said Mrs. Oliver, with firmness and the determination of a spoilt child, “is my1970 address book. And I think 1969 as well. Please look for it as quick as you can, will you?”

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