In Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot, Mr Hoppy helps Mrs Silver with her tortoise.
The 1990 children’s book centers on Mr Hoppy, a shy retired man who lives in an apartment above Mrs Silver. He is in love with her, but Mrs Silver is devoted to her pet tortoise, Alfie. Mr Hoppy invents a plan that he hopes will make Mrs Silver admire him.
He gives her a supposedly magical way to make Alfie grow larger. In reality, Mr Hoppy secretly replaces Alfie with increasingly larger tortoises, while using the nonsense phrase “Esio Trot” as part of the trick. The phrase is “tortoise” reversed.
The animal is sometimes confused with one of the creatures in Dahl’s other books, such as the mouse in The Witches or the fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox. Esio Trot is specifically a romantic comedy built around a pet tortoise and a neighbor’s elaborate deception.