Tom Michell
Author of The Penguin Lessons
Works by Tom Michell
Lekcje z pingwinem 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- teacher
- Short biography
- Tom Michell was born and grew up in the rural downs of southern England, where he learned a love of animals, birds, and plants. After living in Argentina, he returned home and settled in Cornwall, where he helps with the family business, tends a small plot of what he calls "good Cornish soil," and sings with a local choir.
He is an amateur artist, and in his spare time he draws and paints subjects from the wildlife around his home, specializing in birds of prey.
Michell is an enthusiastic proponent of understanding how humans can live in genuinely sustainable ways. He married with four grown-up children and three grandchildren. [from Penguin Lessons (2015)] - Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Sussex, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Argentina
Cornwall, England, UK - Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
Probably the best book of 2022 so far and probably in the running for best book of the year. The author finds a dying penguin drenched in oil on a beach and decides to try to save it. He does & then smuggled it into Argentina. I was roaring with laughter about their antics together. At turns serious about the plight of the country & lessons he learned from Juan Salvado (the penguin), it is all but impossible to put down. All the love for this book.
January 2021 book club book for 15th anniversary meeting of my real world (via video since March 2020) book club. It’s a good book for book club.
It’s beautifully written, entertaining, charming, humorous at times, and a great armchair travel book.
It’s lighter than most of my book club books but it’s not fluff. It is an engaging story and a lovely meditation on friendships, relationships in general, mentoring, nature, how humans impact the ecosystem, and on adventure and seeking out & show more experiencing the new.
I’ve always been fond of penguins, especially since I saw the movie March of the Penguins in a movie theater. Here it was fun to get to know a penguin who did experience human intervention and to see a real relationship develop.
I rooted for the penguin and for Diego and for the author, and for others too.
I enjoyed the mix of information about the areas/nature, the author, the people he encountered, and especially the penguin. I appreciated the scientific information that is included, especially that added toward the end of the book that helps explain exactly why the penguin behaved as it did.
The penguin illustrations by the author were pleasing and added to the narrative. I do wish that there had been photos and I wonder if the bit more than two minutes of video footage can be found anywhere is I’d love to view it.
It’s a delightful book I can heartily recommend to readers who might enjoy reading about penguin and humans relationship, has interest in South America its history and/or it’s present, interest in wildlife especially penguins, interest in an unconventional school story, culture exchange, really most readers. Even people who are not normally non-fiction readers might enjoy it as it’s great storytelling.
4-1/2 stars show less
It’s beautifully written, entertaining, charming, humorous at times, and a great armchair travel book.
It’s lighter than most of my book club books but it’s not fluff. It is an engaging story and a lovely meditation on friendships, relationships in general, mentoring, nature, how humans impact the ecosystem, and on adventure and seeking out & show more experiencing the new.
I’ve always been fond of penguins, especially since I saw the movie March of the Penguins in a movie theater. Here it was fun to get to know a penguin who did experience human intervention and to see a real relationship develop.
I rooted for the penguin and for Diego and for the author, and for others too.
I enjoyed the mix of information about the areas/nature, the author, the people he encountered, and especially the penguin. I appreciated the scientific information that is included, especially that added toward the end of the book that helps explain exactly why the penguin behaved as it did.
The penguin illustrations by the author were pleasing and added to the narrative. I do wish that there had been photos and I wonder if the bit more than two minutes of video footage can be found anywhere is I’d love to view it.
It’s a delightful book I can heartily recommend to readers who might enjoy reading about penguin and humans relationship, has interest in South America its history and/or it’s present, interest in wildlife especially penguins, interest in an unconventional school story, culture exchange, really most readers. Even people who are not normally non-fiction readers might enjoy it as it’s great storytelling.
4-1/2 stars show less
When I saw the cover of “The Penguin Lessons,” I simply couldn’t resist reading it, and I’m glad I didn’t or I would have missed out on a great story.
Tom Mitchell’s true story chronicles his life during the early 1970s, when as a 23 year old from the U.K. he moved to Argentina to teach at a prestigious English-language college (and live the free-wheeling life of an unencumbered adventurer exploring South America). During a trip to the Uraguayan coast, he comes upon hundreds of show more Magellan penguins that have all been killed by an oil slick – except for one lone penguin, covered in oil, but hanging on to life. Not quite knowing what to do, he decides to take the penguin back to Argentina and nurse it back to health (yeah, I know, it sounds crazy, but remember this is the 1970’s, and Uraguay. I doubt anyone could get a penguin through customs today).
The penguin, named Juan Salvado, flourishes under Tom’s care. Although Tom explores options of turning Juan over to the Buenos Ares zoo, or returning him to the wild, neither of these pan out and seeing that Juan is thriving Tom decides to raise him.
While the book covers the requisite funny anecdotes of trying to raise a penguin, and the heartwarming tales of how those at the college bond with Juan Salvado, Mitchell includes a bigger picture of the time and place in his book. He includes an interesting commentary on the political and economic situation of Argentina during the early 70s, as well as beautiful descriptions of the Argentinian landscape (I was less interested in the lengthy descriptions of rugby – an Argentinian pastime).
A particularly moving part of the book comes near the end when Mitchell relays in beautiful detail about the way Juan Salvado helped transform a student who was struggling and an outcast at the college. It brought a tear to my eye. In my professional life I work with an organization that brings nature and animal therapy programs to vulnerable populations, including children and teens who have experienced trauma and suffer from PTSD. There is something incredibly profound about the human-animal bond, and for so many people the connection with an animal is their first step toward healing and transformation.
3.75 stars rounded up to 4.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less
Tom Mitchell’s true story chronicles his life during the early 1970s, when as a 23 year old from the U.K. he moved to Argentina to teach at a prestigious English-language college (and live the free-wheeling life of an unencumbered adventurer exploring South America). During a trip to the Uraguayan coast, he comes upon hundreds of show more Magellan penguins that have all been killed by an oil slick – except for one lone penguin, covered in oil, but hanging on to life. Not quite knowing what to do, he decides to take the penguin back to Argentina and nurse it back to health (yeah, I know, it sounds crazy, but remember this is the 1970’s, and Uraguay. I doubt anyone could get a penguin through customs today).
The penguin, named Juan Salvado, flourishes under Tom’s care. Although Tom explores options of turning Juan over to the Buenos Ares zoo, or returning him to the wild, neither of these pan out and seeing that Juan is thriving Tom decides to raise him.
While the book covers the requisite funny anecdotes of trying to raise a penguin, and the heartwarming tales of how those at the college bond with Juan Salvado, Mitchell includes a bigger picture of the time and place in his book. He includes an interesting commentary on the political and economic situation of Argentina during the early 70s, as well as beautiful descriptions of the Argentinian landscape (I was less interested in the lengthy descriptions of rugby – an Argentinian pastime).
A particularly moving part of the book comes near the end when Mitchell relays in beautiful detail about the way Juan Salvado helped transform a student who was struggling and an outcast at the college. It brought a tear to my eye. In my professional life I work with an organization that brings nature and animal therapy programs to vulnerable populations, including children and teens who have experienced trauma and suffer from PTSD. There is something incredibly profound about the human-animal bond, and for so many people the connection with an animal is their first step toward healing and transformation.
3.75 stars rounded up to 4.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less
The Penguin Lessons by Tom Mitchell is a memoir of the time he was teaching in Argentina and while vacationing came across a beach that was covered with dead, oil encrusted penguins. It was the 1970s and twenty-three year old Tom was horrified at how the huge tankers would dump excess oil in the ocean with no regard for any living creatures. To his surprise, he found one penguin that was still live. He scooped up the bird, cleaned him up, smuggled him back to Argentina and the private boys show more school that he worked at.
The penguin came to be named Juan Salvado and became the pet of the whole school, loved by staff and students like. Tom set him up on the terrace of his apartment, fed him buckets of spats (small fish), and occasionally allowed him to swim in the school swimming pool. Juan Salvado became a well known figure at the school, even becoming the mascot of the rugby team. Tom was in a quandary about hat to do with the bird, he checked out the zoo but it was not in very good condition, he travelled to the far south of the country to consider the penguin rookeries but couldn’t figure out how to get Juan Salvado there. He decided to keep him at the school and give him he best life possible.
I found this book very interesting, as the author writes not only about the penguin but also of his travels throughout South America. Although this was a difficult time in Argentina with high inflation and the overthrow of the government with a military junta installed, Mitchell writes about his little companion in a gentle and heart-warming manner. The book charms, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story about Juan Salvado the Penguin. show less
The penguin came to be named Juan Salvado and became the pet of the whole school, loved by staff and students like. Tom set him up on the terrace of his apartment, fed him buckets of spats (small fish), and occasionally allowed him to swim in the school swimming pool. Juan Salvado became a well known figure at the school, even becoming the mascot of the rugby team. Tom was in a quandary about hat to do with the bird, he checked out the zoo but it was not in very good condition, he travelled to the far south of the country to consider the penguin rookeries but couldn’t figure out how to get Juan Salvado there. He decided to keep him at the school and give him he best life possible.
I found this book very interesting, as the author writes not only about the penguin but also of his travels throughout South America. Although this was a difficult time in Argentina with high inflation and the overthrow of the government with a military junta installed, Mitchell writes about his little companion in a gentle and heart-warming manner. The book charms, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story about Juan Salvado the Penguin. show less
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- Rating
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