Sloths: A Celebration of the World's Most Misunderstood Mammal

Description

How old is the sloth? How do sloths have sex? How did a sloth save Dublin? The answers to these questions, and more, are found in this wonderfully entertaining celebration of the sloth. Walking readers through the sloth's evolutionary history - from the prehistoric ground sloth to modern pygmy - William Hartston reveals the sloth's fascinating journey from maligned mammal to cause celebre. Playfully peppered with science and filled with factoids, Sloths is a love-letter to the most anachronistic, and just a little bit ridiculous, of animals. 'Riveting... Sloths is as comprehensive a look at the instincts, lifestyle and capacities of this curious creature as you are ever likely to need.' - Daily Express

William Hartston is a Cambridge-educated mathematician and industrial psychologist. Between 1962 and 1987 he played chess competitively, becoming an international master and winning the British chess championship in 1973 and 1975. He runs competitions in creative thinking at the annual Mind Sports Olympiad, writes the off-beat Beachcomber column for the Daily Express, where he is also the opera critic, and is the author of several books on chess, numbers, humour and trivia, including The Things That Nobody Knows and Even More Things That Nobody Knows. He is also one of the viewers on Channel 4's Gogglebox.

Fascinating... Hartston writes all this with his customary wit and an obvious joy in discovery. -- Marcus Berkmann * Daily Mail * Riveting... Sloths! is as comprehensive a look at the instincts, lifestyle and capacities of this curious creature as you are ever likely to need... [A] beautifully written gem * Daily Express *