A completely accurate account of the last 185 years, told through the eyes of the world’s oldest Galapagos tortoise
No Word Of a Lie is a comic novel recounting the last one hundred and eighty-five years of history told through the eyes of Jonathan, the world’s oldest Galapagos tortoise. Based on historical fact, his life has been a cavalcade of incident but perhaps due to his advancing years he is a reptile with a tendency to confuse the truth at times, though his heart is always in the right place.
In this collection of memoirs he recounts the stand out incidents that have shaped his long life on earth. From his encounters with Hitler in an Austrian zoo, to meeting Charles Dickens in a boozy dockside tavern. Inventing the sick bag whilst taking part in the maiden flight of the Wright Flyer, to being arrested for sitting on an Alabama bus with Rosa Parks. And of course there is his ill-fated appearance on Blue Peter in the 1970s, when he soiled the studio floor.
But as well as being a history of the past 185 years told by someone who’s lived it No Word of a Lie is also a meditation on the ageing process. A frank and honest account of the lessons one learns, the clothes from the eighties one must avoid wearing again, and the importance of true love and real friends. A story that is shared before the restaurant bill finally arrives and Death presents him with the true cost of living, a price that means he can at last hibernate in peace for an eternity…hopefully.