Hugh Lofting’s “The Story of Doctor Dolittle” — bedtime book: extract, author and a Maidenhead route

Tonight’s bedtime book is Hugh Lofting’s The Story of Doctor Dolittle (1920) — invented not at a desk but in the trenches of the First World War. Instead of writing his children about the horror, Lofting drew them a tale about a doctor who gave up treating people and taught himself to talk to animals. Dr John Dolittle lives in the little town of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, his house full of creatures, and Polynesia the parrot shows him that every animal has its own language. It is a book about curiosity and kindness — about understanding others as the greatest gift. It reads aloud lightly and merrily, a chapter an evening, and for anyone who only knew Chukovsky’s Russian “Aybolit” as a child, here is the original: the same doctor, English, fuller and more charming still.

The opening lines

The book begins: “ONCE upon a time, many years ago—when our grandfathers were little children—there was a doctor; and his name was Dolittle—John Dolittle, M.D.” And the heart of him: “He was very fond of animals and kept many kinds of pets.” The town is Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. The full English text is free at Project Gutenberg, book no. 501.

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Why open it tonight

It is a quiet, funny, very gentle story about curiosity beating squeamishness: Dolittle loses his human patients because the house is full of animals, and becomes the best animal doctor in the world — the only one who understands them. No heavy moral, nothing frightening: just right before sleep. Chapter one, “Puddleby,” runs about 750 words — roughly six minutes aloud — and sets up the doctor and his house. One note for parents: the 1920 text carries some dated racial attitudes of its era, so read children a modern revised edition, where those passages have been corrected.

About the author

Hugh Lofting (14 January 1886, Maidenhead, Berkshire – 26 September 1947, Topanga, California). Trained as an engineer — Mount St Mary’s College, Spinkhill, then civil engineering at MIT (1905–06) — he travelled the world on building works. In the First World War he served with the Irish Guards and was badly wounded; Doctor Dolittle was born in the illustrated letters he sent his children from the front instead of war news. The first book appeared in 1920; its sequel, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922), won him the Newbery Medal (1923).

A trip to the author’s places

Lofting’s trail is a modest one — his native Maidenhead, on the Thames. Maidenhead Heritage Centre (18 Park Street, SL6 1SL) is the town museum: Tuesday–Saturday 10am–4pm, closed Sunday and Monday; adult £4, concession £3 (65+, disabled, students, veterans, groups over 10), child 11–16 £3, under 10 free (checked 10 November 2026). Then down to the river: Ray Mill Island by Boulter’s Lock (enter from Ray Mead Road, near SL6 8PE), a public island park with an aviary and guinea-pig enclosure, wooden animals and a small play area for ages 3–8, picnic tables, toilets and a cafe; from September to April the island is monitored and may close in high water. A little menagerie on the Thames — a soft nod to the doctor who healed animals. Honestly: Puddleby-on-the-Marsh is invented and there is no dedicated Lofting museum — but Maidenhead and its river are real.

Where to find it

Free. The full English text at Project Gutenberg (book no. 501); for a library copy search the Library Hub Discover catalogue. To buy in Russian: the Russian-language bookshops in Britain — Notre Locus and Bookashka, children’s sections. In Russian the book has appeared as “Istoriya doktora Dulittla” — not to be confused with Korney Chukovsky’s free retelling “Doctor Aybolit,” which is a separate Russian tale after Lofting. Confirm the price and stock of a given edition on the day.