Esio Trot – in fact – does know of a way to make a tortoise grow bigger. He writes the following words on a slip of paper, and lowers it down to Mrs Silver: <poem> ESIO TROT, ESIO TROT, TEG REGGIB REGGIB, EMOC NO, ESIO TROT, WORG PU, FFUP PU, TOOHS PU, PU, WOLB PU, LLEWS PU, EGROG! ELZZUG! FFUTS! PLUG, TUP NO TAF, ESIO TROT, TUP NO TAF, TEG NO, TEG NO, ELBBOG DOOF.</poem> Mr Hoppy explains that these magic words, when whispered in Alfie's ear three times a day, will cause Alfie to grow bigger and bigger. Mrs Silver is
Roald Dahl Theo Dahl was severely injured when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. For a time, he suffered from hydrocephalus. As a result, his father became involved in the development of what became known as the "Wade-Dahl-Till" (or WDT) valve, a device to alleviate the condition. The valve was a collaboration between Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till, and was used successfully on almost 3,000 children around the world. In November 1962, Dahl's daughter Olivia died of measles encephalitis, age seven. Her death left Dahl "limp with