Esio Trot is a story about shy Mr Hoppy and his love for his neighbour, Mrs Silver. It was one of Roald Dahl's last stories and is dedicated to two of his grandchildren, Clover and Luke.

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Norwegian descent, who rose to prominence in the 1940's with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors. He discovers that what Alfie likes best is some of the flowers Mr. Hoppy grows on his balcony. The flowers Mr. Hoppy loves. AND - poor Alfie. Alfie lived with Mrs. Silver for eleven years but as soon as Mr. Hoppy swaps him out, Mrs. Silver couldn't tell the difference. Does friendship mean nothing? Thank goodness Dahl includes a bit at the end where we find out that Alfie lived a very happy life with a little girl who loved him. Phew. Ahhh." Mr. Hoppy said, feeling rather embarrassed. He'd thought he was being pretty clever. "You're right of course. I did. You caught me. But I did it because I love you. I knew Alfie was really important to you, and I wanted you to be happy."

Then, every night, he uses his long-armed tortoise grabber to lift Alfie up to his apartment where he feeds him delicious food. And, as we all know, when you eat more, you get bigger, right? It is left to Dench to be more vivid, footloose and flirtatious with various costumes that she wears as she bumps into Mr Hoppy in the lift. Mrs Silver has passions of her own that she wants to unleash. Mr Hoppy is a shy elderly man who lives alone in an apartment, tending to his many plants, which have been the center of his life since he retired from his job in a bus garage several years before. For many years, he has had a secret love whose name was Mrs Silver. She lives in the flat below his, and he frequently leans over his balcony and exchanges polite conversations with Mrs Silver, but his courage fails him whenever he prepares to hint at his true feelings for her.

Suffice to say the next night when my boy asked to read the rest of the story, I deviated from the original script.In my version, in addition to buying a bunch of tortoises and building a tortoise-grabber, Mr Hoppy also goes to the grocery store and buys a bunch of vegetables. He then spends the rest of the week inventing recipes for tortoises and testing them on his new pets, figuring out which ones are the most delicious to tortoises. My daughter is a BIG Dahl fan and loves this book as much as all the others. His writing has helped inspire her to want to be an author - and she is only 8!! I cannot think of an author for children so bold, so funny, so naughty, so rude or so exhilarating as Roald Dahl. If you would like your child to be a reader and a writer, you could do no better than to start buying his books. Esio Trot would make a lovely start.

The musical score is by composer Tim Phillips. All the commercial music used in the show is that of New Orleans jazz singer and trumpeter Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars; which include Edmond Hall, Trummy Young, Billy Kyle, Arvell Shaw& Barrett Deems. Roald Dahl's Esio Trot debuted in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2015, on BBC One. [3] It was seen by 7.86 million viewers, making it the ninth-most watched programme on BBC One and across all United Kingdom TV channels for the week ending 4 January 2015. [4] Cast [ edit ] So Mr. Hoppy uses these flowers from his garden in his recipes. (I described these to my boy in some detail to pad out the story. I am a fantasy author after all.) Mr. Hoppy feeds Alfie every night, and Alfie grows bigger and bigger and bigger… The story revolves around the shy old man, Mr Hoppy, as he tries to pursue a relationship with his neighbor, Mrs Silver.Esio Trotwas a favourite of Roald's principal illustrator Quentin Blake and in 2013 a new audio version of the story was released - with Quentin as the narrator. Yes," Mr. Hoppy said. "I've been feeding Alfie special recipes every night so he would grow bigger." Dahl has mastered yet another short piece for his young readers. Steering away from the completely silly, the story holds a strong possibility of truth, though one can never know what ideas Dahl uses for his writing. Two central characters pull the readers in from the outset and the story progresses nicely from there, if only to take a few twists that keep things interesting. Basing some of the animal characteristics on pets owned by the Dahl children, the author finds a way to connect his own family to this well-developed piece. One can only hope that there are other stories out there that have just as much humour and excitement, perfect for readers of all ages.

This man crammed over a hundred tortoises into one small apartment for this grand scheme. And he only fed them lettuce. Those poor fellas. They need a nutritionally diverse diet and UV light. Dalby, Richard (April 1994). "The Adult Fiction of Roald Dahl". The Book and Magazine Collector. No.121. Ignoring the adult view, through a critical eye, of the underhanded deception and looking at it as a story of just pure children’s fiction without a moral message, it is classic Dahl. It is a well-written and enjoyable, fun read that children will be able to read easily at a fast pace as it is a short book and one that they will enjoy the humour of. Unlike other Dahl works (which often feature tyrannical adults and heroic/magical children), Esio Trot is the story of an ageing, lonely man (Mr Hoppy), trying to make a connection with a person that he has loved from afar (his widowed neighbour, Mrs Silver). [2]Mr Hoppy runs down the stairs, nervous and excited to be on the brink of winning Mrs Silver's love. Mrs Silver flings open the door, embraces Mr Hoppy, and expresses her admiration for Mr Hoppy's magical spell. However, the tortoise cannot fit in the house now, so Mr Hoppy tells Mrs Silver to say the magic spell in reverse ( Tortoise, tortoise, get bigger bigger, etc.). On the next night he secretly replaces this tortoise with one slightly smaller one. His part works splendidly, and Mr Hoppy, suddenly emboldened by Mrs Silver's warm smile, asks Mrs Silver for her hand in marriage. Mrs Silver delightedly accepts Mr Hoppy's proposal, then adds that she thought he would never get around to asking. "All due to Alfie!" she cries.