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!
'The greatest moment of my life is coming up now! I mustn't bish it! I mustn't bosh it!'
This beautiful edition of Esio Trot, part of The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, features official archive material from the Roald Dahl Museum and is perfect for Dahl fans old and new.
So, enter a world where invention and mischief can be found on every page and where magic might be at the very tips of your fingers . . .
The Roald Dahl Classic Collection reinstates the versions of Dahl's books that were published before the 2022 Puffin editions, aimed at newly independent young 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.
