Book review: The Penguin Lessons

DID last year’s John Lewis Christmas advert have you laughing and crying at the same time and off on a jaunt to the local zoo to see a real-life version of Monty the penguin? Then this is the book for you.

It documents the unique real-life story of the author Michell, back in 1975 when he was 23 years old.

With a passion for travelling and adventure, he heads off to become an assistant master at a prestigious boarding school in Argentina, but en-route finds himself helping an oil-covered penguin in Uruguay.

After cleaning him up, the penguin refuses to leave his side and thus follows a story of an extraordinary bond, where Michell smuggles the penguin, whom he names Juan Salvador, over the border and into his campus apartment.

Packed full of funny, heart-warming anecdotes and peppered with interesting details of the political and economic picture of Argentina, this would make a perfect Christmas stocking filler.

The Penguin Lessons

Tom Michell

Michael Joseph, £9.99; ebook, £4.99