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The Day of the Tortoise
The Day of the Tortoise, a novella published in book form in November 1961 (it had appeared in ‘Argosy’ in September 1960), is a gentle tale of a brief interlude of pleasure in the drab existence of Fred Tomlinson, a man nearing his sixties. Fred shops, cleans, cooks, and otherwise indulges the eccentric demands of his three spinster sisters until the fun-loving Kitty, disrupts the household’s long-established routines. Penniless, heavy-drinking, and pregnant by a married man, she introduces him to dance, drink, kisses, and song while (without the knowledge of his sisters) he provides her a temporary lodging in the stable. After Kitty’s departure, Fred retains some of his newly-discovered capacity for joy.
94 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1961
About the author
H.E. Bates
279 books201 followersHerbert Ernest Bates, CBE is widely recognised as one of the finest short story writers of his generation, with more than 20 story collections published in his lifetime. It should not be overlooked, however, that he also wrote some outstanding novels, starting with The Two Sisters through to A Moment in Time, with such works as Love For Lydia, Fair Stood the Wind for France and The Scarlet Sword earning high praise from the critics. His study of the Modern Short Story is considered one of the best ever written on the subject.
He was born in Rushden, Northamptonshire and was educated at Kettering Grammar School. After leaving school, he was briefly a newspaper reporter and a warehouse clerk, but his heart was always in writing and his dream to be able to make a living by his pen.
Many of his stories depict life in the rural Midlands of England, particularly his native Northamptonshire. Bates was partial to taking long midnight walks around the Northamptonshire countryside - and this often provided the inspiration for his stories. Bates was a great lover of the countryside and its people and this is exemplified in two volumes of essays entitled Through the Woods and Down the River.
In 1931, he married Madge Cox, his sweetheart from the next road in his native Rushden. They moved to the village of Little Chart in Kent and bought an old granary and this together with an acre of garden they converted into a home. It was in this phase of his life that he found the inspiration for the Larkins series of novels -The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh, etc. - and the Uncle Silas tales. Not surprisingly, these highly successful novels inspired television series that were immensely popular.
His collection of stories written while serving in the RAF during World War II, best known by the title The Stories of Flying Officer X, but previously published as Something in the Air (a compilation of his two wartime collections under the pseudonym 'Flying Officer X' and titled The Greatest People in the World and How Sleep the Brave), deserve particular attention. By the end of the war he had achieved the rank of Squadron Leader.
Bates was influenced by Chekhov in particular, and his knowledge of the history of the short story is obvious from the famous study he produced on the subject. He also wrote his autobiography in three volumes (each delightfully illustrated) which were subsequently published in a one-volume Autobiography.
Bates was a keen and knowledgeable gardener and wrote numerous books on flowers. The Granary remained their home for the whole of their married life. After the death of H. E Bates, Madge moved to a bungalow, which had originally been a cow byre, next to the Granary. She died in 2004 at age 95. They raised two sons and two daughters.
primarily from Wikipedia, with additions by Keith Farnsworth
He was born in Rushden, Northamptonshire and was educated at Kettering Grammar School. After leaving school, he was briefly a newspaper reporter and a warehouse clerk, but his heart was always in writing and his dream to be able to make a living by his pen.
Many of his stories depict life in the rural Midlands of England, particularly his native Northamptonshire. Bates was partial to taking long midnight walks around the Northamptonshire countryside - and this often provided the inspiration for his stories. Bates was a great lover of the countryside and its people and this is exemplified in two volumes of essays entitled Through the Woods and Down the River.
In 1931, he married Madge Cox, his sweetheart from the next road in his native Rushden. They moved to the village of Little Chart in Kent and bought an old granary and this together with an acre of garden they converted into a home. It was in this phase of his life that he found the inspiration for the Larkins series of novels -The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh, etc. - and the Uncle Silas tales. Not surprisingly, these highly successful novels inspired television series that were immensely popular.
His collection of stories written while serving in the RAF during World War II, best known by the title The Stories of Flying Officer X, but previously published as Something in the Air (a compilation of his two wartime collections under the pseudonym 'Flying Officer X' and titled The Greatest People in the World and How Sleep the Brave), deserve particular attention. By the end of the war he had achieved the rank of Squadron Leader.
Bates was influenced by Chekhov in particular, and his knowledge of the history of the short story is obvious from the famous study he produced on the subject. He also wrote his autobiography in three volumes (each delightfully illustrated) which were subsequently published in a one-volume Autobiography.
Bates was a keen and knowledgeable gardener and wrote numerous books on flowers. The Granary remained their home for the whole of their married life. After the death of H. E Bates, Madge moved to a bungalow, which had originally been a cow byre, next to the Granary. She died in 2004 at age 95. They raised two sons and two daughters.
primarily from Wikipedia, with additions by Keith Farnsworth
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 13, 2017
I've often committed the mistake of being judgmental towards those who are other from me. I'm slowly adjusting my fogged lenses in life, but I don't exonerate myself.
Fred is one of those people who put his family first, and is actually the servant of his three sisters. He's middle-aged, and a bachelor, with a relatively quiet and boring life until one girl stumbles upon his dreary existence. Her name is Kitty, and she's his antithesis: she's hard-drinking, loose with her values, and adventurous. In spite of that, however, she managed to add color to his life, and actually provoked an epiphany within him. He enjoyed their company, because in spite of her flaws, she treated him like a human, quite unlike his demanding sisters. At the end of the novel, at least, he allows joy to enter his life - and that's a good thing.
Fred is one of those people who put his family first, and is actually the servant of his three sisters. He's middle-aged, and a bachelor, with a relatively quiet and boring life until one girl stumbles upon his dreary existence. Her name is Kitty, and she's his antithesis: she's hard-drinking, loose with her values, and adventurous. In spite of that, however, she managed to add color to his life, and actually provoked an epiphany within him. He enjoyed their company, because in spite of her flaws, she treated him like a human, quite unlike his demanding sisters. At the end of the novel, at least, he allows joy to enter his life - and that's a good thing.
April 2, 2023
Really nice book it got me put of a reading slump, themes of control/freedom and ageing that really got me thinking I love the writing and how Bates uses physical metaphors.
June 5, 2026
H.E.Bates, largely known for his ‘Larkin’ novels such as ‘The Darling Buds of May’, is not widely read any more. A pity, I feel, because he does a good line in stories with characters who are life-affirming, and so it is in this one.
The Tortoise in question – other than William, the one in the garden on a leash – is Fred Tomlinson who lives in a ‘shabby Victorian’ house in a village in what I took to be the Downlands of south-east England. Much of the novel is set in sunshine to mirror the happiness that the 57 year old Fred discovers in the course of one summer.
Fred lives with his three spinster older sisters who are all eccentric. ‘Flossie, the youngest, was dumpy, with bleached thistledown hair, cheeks always powdered a heavy tooth-paste pink and large vain blue eyes. She was never awake before eleven…’ She spends most of the day getting ready to go out to see her friends and then going out with them, usually for extended tea. Her room is on the first floor.
‘Ella, the middle one, was fair too, but in a very different way. Her hair had the appearance of a forkful of hay carelessly dumped down on top of her head and never combed… Her room was on the second floor and in it she had made a little altar by the fireplace.’ Here she ‘kneels for long periods of the day’ praying for the souls of animals and birds.
The eldest sister in Aggie. She lives on the top floor ‘in self-chosen purdah, never coming down’. ‘She lived mostly on cocoa and fried fish which Fred bought at the fish-and-chip shop at the end of the road and then warmed up in the kitchen and periodically sent up to her’ in a wicker basket which she lowers down from her eyrie. Her days are spent writing messages to important people which she posts sometimes ‘registered’, but she also does a steady line in cryptic messages sent to the village in general via her pet jackdaw.
Fred is their factotum who has to busy himself with shopping, cooking, serving meals at all times of day, gardening, jam-making, cleaning, and running errands. His sisters are demanding and take him for granted.
None of them has ever been married.
And one day, Fred meets a young girl serving in the dairy where he buys milk and eggs. She has an infectious laugh, and says she’ll bring him the milk and eggs at dinner time, which she does. It’s hot; Fred offers her a drink; she asks if he has any gin; he does – it’s Flossie’s that she uses for, so she says, heartburn. The girl, who remains ‘girl from the dairy’, tells him she may well be thrown out by her sister with whom she lives. That evening, they meet at the pub; Fred drinks beer, she drinks gin and says she’s nowhere to sleep but seems cheerful about it and Fred says she can sleep in his ‘den’ above the stable block where he retreats occasionally to escape his domestic duties. And things spiral upwards from there.
Not in any salacious way. Fred is an ingénue, but not ungentlemanly. The girl can see that, but she encourages him to enjoy himself. He learns to do that.
And that is what this, as it turns out, bittersweet tale is all about: a late middle-aged man being given a taste of life, even if it is just that. It’s a delight.
There is, however, I think, an undertow that is very sad. Fred and his sisters may, one assumes, have private means, but they are not really alive. I thought their eccentricities far too strange to be credible, but wondered if Bates was writing about a generation of women suffering from a shortage of men after WW1 who missed out on love and marriage. It’s a good story, told with a rich appreciation of the joyfulness of living and an acknowledgement that for many people it can’t always be gleeful.
My edition I bought as a hardback first edition; it’s in beautiful condition and is illustrated by Peter Farmer.
The Tortoise in question – other than William, the one in the garden on a leash – is Fred Tomlinson who lives in a ‘shabby Victorian’ house in a village in what I took to be the Downlands of south-east England. Much of the novel is set in sunshine to mirror the happiness that the 57 year old Fred discovers in the course of one summer.
Fred lives with his three spinster older sisters who are all eccentric. ‘Flossie, the youngest, was dumpy, with bleached thistledown hair, cheeks always powdered a heavy tooth-paste pink and large vain blue eyes. She was never awake before eleven…’ She spends most of the day getting ready to go out to see her friends and then going out with them, usually for extended tea. Her room is on the first floor.
‘Ella, the middle one, was fair too, but in a very different way. Her hair had the appearance of a forkful of hay carelessly dumped down on top of her head and never combed… Her room was on the second floor and in it she had made a little altar by the fireplace.’ Here she ‘kneels for long periods of the day’ praying for the souls of animals and birds.
The eldest sister in Aggie. She lives on the top floor ‘in self-chosen purdah, never coming down’. ‘She lived mostly on cocoa and fried fish which Fred bought at the fish-and-chip shop at the end of the road and then warmed up in the kitchen and periodically sent up to her’ in a wicker basket which she lowers down from her eyrie. Her days are spent writing messages to important people which she posts sometimes ‘registered’, but she also does a steady line in cryptic messages sent to the village in general via her pet jackdaw.
Fred is their factotum who has to busy himself with shopping, cooking, serving meals at all times of day, gardening, jam-making, cleaning, and running errands. His sisters are demanding and take him for granted.
None of them has ever been married.
And one day, Fred meets a young girl serving in the dairy where he buys milk and eggs. She has an infectious laugh, and says she’ll bring him the milk and eggs at dinner time, which she does. It’s hot; Fred offers her a drink; she asks if he has any gin; he does – it’s Flossie’s that she uses for, so she says, heartburn. The girl, who remains ‘girl from the dairy’, tells him she may well be thrown out by her sister with whom she lives. That evening, they meet at the pub; Fred drinks beer, she drinks gin and says she’s nowhere to sleep but seems cheerful about it and Fred says she can sleep in his ‘den’ above the stable block where he retreats occasionally to escape his domestic duties. And things spiral upwards from there.
Not in any salacious way. Fred is an ingénue, but not ungentlemanly. The girl can see that, but she encourages him to enjoy himself. He learns to do that.
And that is what this, as it turns out, bittersweet tale is all about: a late middle-aged man being given a taste of life, even if it is just that. It’s a delight.
There is, however, I think, an undertow that is very sad. Fred and his sisters may, one assumes, have private means, but they are not really alive. I thought their eccentricities far too strange to be credible, but wondered if Bates was writing about a generation of women suffering from a shortage of men after WW1 who missed out on love and marriage. It’s a good story, told with a rich appreciation of the joyfulness of living and an acknowledgement that for many people it can’t always be gleeful.
My edition I bought as a hardback first edition; it’s in beautiful condition and is illustrated by Peter Farmer.
July 30, 2020
A short novella by the author of The Darling Buds of May. Fred is a confirmed bachelor whose whole life is lived in service to his three demanding and highly eccentric sisters and their host of equally strange pets. He lives an old fashioned life bound by habit and repetition and has stopped thinking for himself. He is not unhappy. He is just switched off. One day when he goes to the local dairy to get milk, he meets a woman who changes everything and wakes him up. Suddenly life is not as pedestrian as it seems and Fred learns to enjoy himself again. This is charming, whimsical and at times rather silly. It's also quite sad in places but is perfectly balanced and deeply satisfying. I absolutely loved this.
April 17, 2020
My favourite book! I’ve read it twice.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews