A favourite book, often re-read. Sylvia Townsend Warner has extracted from the writings of Gilbert White references to the old tortoise he inherited in 1780 from his aunt. The resulting window into the world of a pet tortoise in a Hampshire garden is a delight - for instance in April 1789, "Timothy the tortoise begins to eat dandelion", but by the middle of September he is very dull, "and spends his time on the border under the fruilt-wall". ( )