Timothy, or, Notes of an Abject Reptile

Few writers have attempted to explore the natural history of a particular animal by adopting the animal’s own sensibility. But Verlyn Klinkenborg has done just that in Timothy: an insightful and utterly engaging story of the world’s most famous tortoise, whose real life was observed by the eighteenth-century English curate and naturalist Gilbert White. For thirteen years, Timothy lived in White’s garden. Here Klinkenborg gives the tortoise an unforgettable voice and keen powers of observation on both human and natural affairs. Wry and wise, unexpectedly moving and enchanting at every–careful–turn, Timothy surprises and delights.

Verlyn Klinkenborg is the author of Making Hay, The Rural Life, and The Last Fine Time. A member of the editorial board of The New York Times, Klinkenborghas been published in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications. He lives in upstate New York.