Mark Shand with Tara I attend Tara the Elephant's 50th birthday party at "Quintessentially" smart London office this week. Tara is an Asian elephant who enchanted Mark Shand and inspired him to set up the charity, Elephant family. There were wonderful paintings and sculptures on display by Angela Conner, Richard Symonds and George Butler. Last year Mark was the driving force behind the display of 260 elephant sculptures, dotted around the streets of London. These elephants were all beautiful painted and many designers including Tommy Hilfiger and Matthew Williamson were involved in this project. These sculptures were auctioned and raised vast amounts of money for the Elephant Family charity. Elephant Family has calculated it needs to raise £50 million in the next 10 years if it is to secure a long term future for the species in India. www.elephantfamily.org My son Jake and daughter Cally with an Indian Elephant.

There are currently 260 life-sized baby elephants dotted around London. They have been designed by people from the world of fashion and art such as: Julien MacDonald, Lulu Guinness, Alice Temperly and Nina Campbell, to name but a few. The Elephant Parade hopes to raise 2 million pounds for The Elephant Family charity. Mark Shand, the author of “Travels with my Elephant” heads up this charity and the funds raised will help to create migratory corridors for Asian Elephants to prevent human/elephant conflict. The elephants will be on display collectively at the Chelsea Royal Hospital from the 23rd of June until the 2nd of July and will then be auctioned at Sotherbys as highly collectable works of art. This colourful elephant spotted in Holland Park Avenue in West London.