The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

Description

Hugh Lofting's tales of Doctor Dolittle, the kind and eccentric naturalist who can speak with the animals, have been classics of children's literature for a century. The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle has been fully updated for the modern reader by the author's son, Christopher Lofting. Doctor Dolittle heads for the high seas in another amazing adventure and takes nine-and-a-half-year-old Tommy Stubbins along as his assistant. Narrated by Tommy, Doctor Dolittle and his crew survive a hair-raising shipwreck and land on the mysterious floating Spidermonkey Island. There they meet the incredible Great Glass Sea Snail who holds the key to the biggest mystery of all. A new movie, Dolittle, starring Robert Downey Jr as Dolittle is coming FEBRUARY 2020. Actors lending their voices include Tom Holland, Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, Jumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Rami Malek, Frances de la Tour and starring in live-action roles are Antonio Banderas, Jim Broadbent and Michael Sheen.

Hugh Lofting was born in Maidenhead in 1886. As a child he kept a miniature zoo in his mother's linen cupboard and enjoyed making up stories for his family. He fought in the trenches during the First World War and it was whilst he was observing the lack of compassion shown to the horses on the battlefields that the idea for Doctor Dolittle was born, as the main character in letters Hugh sent home from the front to entertain his children. The Story of Doctor Dolittle was published in 1920 and followed by a further eleven books. In 1923 Hugh Lofting was awarded the Newbery Medal. He died in 1947.

Children will delight in this book. Doctor Dolittle wins all hearts * The Times Literary Supplement *