The Story of Doctor Dolittle

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. Doctor Dolittle keeps all kind of pets in his house in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. In fact he prefers animals to people and even learns to talk to them in their own language. One cold winter's day he learns that the monkeys in Africa are inflicted with a terrible disease, and sets sail on an action packed adventure in the company of his favourite animals to save the monkeys. Dr Dolittle is one of the most delightful and fascinating characters in children's literature. This Macmillan Collector's Library edition is illustrated with Hugh Lofting's own drawings, and includes two new chapters and an afterword by author Philip Ardagh.

Hugh Lofting was born in Maidenhead in 1886. He studied engineering in London and America and his work as a civil engineer took him all over the world. He interrupted his career to enlist in the army and fight in WW1. Wanting to shield his children from the horrors of combat which included the fate of horses on the battlefields, he wrote to them instead about a kindly doctor who could talk to animals. After the war he settled with his family in Connecticut and it was from there that he published his Dr Dolittle Books. The Story of Dr Dolittle was published in 1920, followed by eleven more in the series. This highly acclaimed and prize winning author died in 1947