Charles Darwin studied tortoises to formulate his theories of evolution, and his great-great-grand-daughter, the poet Ruth Padel, revived the subject last night at London Zoo, curating a talk on the Galapagos tortoise.
But her speaker, the author Mark Haddon, acknowledged their visual faults. “Looked at objectively,” he said, “they are not the most attractive of animals. They’re not furry or graceful or playful. Up close they have gummy eyes and sharp little teeth and have something of the slow-motioned, poorly moisturised Lord Voldemort about them.”
But, said Haddon, writer of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, “they carry something of that island magic. There is a shock when thinking that they will be here when we are dead, when our children and possibly our grandchildren are dead. We are arrogant and take every victory for granted but they are winning the one race that matters.”
