Paul Chambers’s A Sheltered Life: The unexpected history of the giant tortoise (John Murray, £8.99) will probably prove to be an elegy. Sadly, the giant tortoises mostly disappeared 2 million years ago, surviving only as small populations on the Galapagos and other islands, and are unlikely to last much longer. Very readable and full of engrossing anecdotes.
Out now in paperback: Shelly
30 March 2005
