Mr Hoppy, a retired bachelor, harbours a secret passion for the attractive widow Mrs Silver. Unfortunately she lavishes all her affection on another - Alfie, her pet tortoise. Mr Hoppy's plot to defeat his rival and win the love of his lady involves a cryptic riddle and no fewer than 140 tortoises!
'I do actually happen to know how to make tortoises grow faster, if that's really what you want.'
Mr Hoppy really loves his neighbour Mrs Silver, and Mrs Silver really loves her tortoise, Alfie. Oh, if only Mr Hoppy could perform some great feat that would make him a hero in her eyes!
Then one day an amazing idea rushes into his head.
With the help of a magical spell, some cabbage leaves and one hundred and forty tortoises, can shy Mr Hoppy win Mrs Silver's heart?
The text in this edition of Esio Trot was updated in 2022 for young independent readers.
Roald Dahl was born in Wales of Norwegian parents – the child of a second marriage. His father and elder sister died when Roald was just three. His mother was left to raise two stepchildren and her own four children. Roald was her only son.
He had an unhappy time at school - at Llandaff Cathedral School, at St Peter’s prep school in Weston-super-Mare and then at Repton in Derbyshire.
Dahl’s unhappy time at school was to influence his writing greatly. He once said that what distinguished him from most other children’s writers was “this business of remembering what it was like to be young”. Roald’s childhood and schooldays are the subject of his autobiography Boy.
Since Roald Dahl’s death, his books have more than maintained their popularity. Total sales of the UK editions are around 37 million, with more than 1 million copies sold every year! Sales have grown particularly strongly in America where Dahl books are now achieving the bestselling status that curiously proved elusive during the author’s lifetime.
