Tom Michell: The Penguin Lessons, Penguin/Michael Joseph, 97807181635, hardback, GPB 9, 99

This delightful little book was published yesterday but I had the privilege of reading the proof pre publishing, courtesy of my former colleague Grazyna from Penguin. What a heartwarming, enjoyable true story, I promise you light-hearted reading hours. A perfect christmas gift in my opinion!

Tom Michell takes us on a journey to Argentina of the 70ties where he worked as a 23 year old rookie English teacher in a boarding school for very wealthy South American boys. He makes the most of his stay by taking every opportunity he gets to travel and one of these journeys takes him to Uruguay where fate strikes. On his last day, he decides to take an evening stroll and finds a beach with stranded Magellan penguins covered in oil from an oil spill. All birds appear dead but he discovers one struggling penguin that seems to have survived the ordeal.  Without thinking twice he takes the penguin to his flat, trying to remove the oil with detergents and shampoo. When he tries to take the bird back to the beach after freeing him from his coat of oil, he refuses to leave his side. Not knowing what to do, he makes a fateful decision: to smuggle Juan Salvador as he has named him back to Argentina, without a clue what is to happen once he is at the boarding school. And there the true story begins, Juan Salvador, this penguin extraordinaire,  transforms the life of the boys at school and everyone else he meets during his life at St. George’s, teaching Tom Michel a few valuable penguin life lessons himself.

Rights have been sold to 20 countries and film rights are presently under negotiation, a new Livingston Seagull movie coming our way, I can just see it.