It’s Valentine’s Day! Usually, I don’t care that much about this so-called Day of Love (in fact, this morning I travelled to Spain with a friend of mine, leaving my boyfriend behind for over a week), but I couldn’t resist sharing Roald Dahl’s short children’s story Esio Trot with you, which really is the perfect Valentine’s read. Want to know why? Read on!
Esio Trot is about a Mr Hoppy, an aging bachelor who’s been in love with his neighbour, Ms Silver, for ages. However, he’s so shy that he is unable to tell her so. When he hears her complain about her small turtle, which, much to her chagrin, refuses to grow, he realises that this might be the opportunity he’s been waiting for. He devises a plan, involving a magic spell, a little white lie, and an ever-growing turtle.
I can’t write too much about Esio Trot, because it’s such a short story. I don’t want this post to end up longer than the actual book! So I’ll just add a few quick thoughts. This book was brought under my attention by my boyfriend (see, even though he’s not with me in Spain, he’s still always in my thoughts (now, really, this is getting too much, isn’t it? Told you I’m not very good at Valentine stuff!)), who, when I asked him which book I should recommend in my fortnightly videos for this bookshop, said I should talk about Dahl’s book. I knew he was right.
Usually, Valentine’s Day is all about big gestures and spending lots of money. Dahl’s story, however, is a very short and very sweet story. There is no big adventure, there is no True Love, there is no huge obstacles that our hero (he’s not even a real hero) has to face. It’s just a simple story about a man and an admittedly quite gullible woman. Even though Mr Hoppy claims he knows a spell to make the turtle grow, he certainly doesn’t use any real magic.
But that’s the thing about Valentine’s Day, isn’t it? We don’t need real magic. We don’t need those big gestures. We don’t need to get married. Or, in my case, we don’t need to be in the same country as our loved ones. Sometimes, all it takes to believe in love again is just a short, simple, and sweet story like Esio Trot.
And apparently, it takes a huge amount of turtles, too.
What do you think of Esio Trot? What would you do if someone tried to win your love in the same way as Mr Hoppy? What is the best move you’ve ever made? What’s youre favourite love story? Please let me know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to follow me for more book-related posts!
The Open Book 