Kendra Coulter — The Tortoise’s Tale

An Evening with Kendra Coulter: The Tortoise’s Tale Comes to the Glencoe Library May 14, 2025

Ross and I both have read the book.  A few months ago.  Then we got to hear the author talk about the book.  When we got home after the author talk, we looked at each and said, “Now I want to read the book again!” 

Kendra Coulter, a professor at Huron University College at Western University, came to talk to us about her debut novel, The Tortoise’s Tale.

By day, Kendra is a leading academic in the field of animal ethics. She helped establish the world’s first four-year arts degree program in animal ethics and sustainability leadership, launched in 2024 at Huron. She is also a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. She  has spent her career thinking rigorously about sentient beings — creatures who feel, who experience the world, who matter.

The story of how The Tortoise’s Tale came to be:  in December 2022, Kendra received the green light from Simon & Schuster to write a novel built around the idea of a giant tortoise as narrator. What followed was a careful, loving act of creation — one in which the historical details were taken seriously and the emotional truth of her subject was honoured.

The novel follows Magic, a giant tortoise snatched from her ancestral lands and brought to a Southern California estate, where she becomes a century-long witness to human life in all its beauty and complexity. She watches the estate transform, owners change, Hollywood arrive and depart — and through it all, she remains honest, endearing, and a deeply perceptive narrator.

Kendra shared with us some of the real-world inspirations woven into the book. The novel is dedicated to two living tortoises: Jonathan, aged 193 on Saint Helena Island — the same remote island where Napoleon spent his final years — and Fernanda, believed to be the last surviving Fernandina tortoise in the world. 

The thing about an author event: it deepens the book rather than explains it away. It was so much fun meeting  Kendra Coulter, hearing her speak  — and feeling her care for sentient life, her belief in the interconnectedness of all beings, her delight in the opportunity that landed in her inbox in December 2022 —  Ross and I are definitely going to read her book again.  And she says she has three more completed manuscripts! 

🐢 Extraordinary Lifespans

Tortoises are among the longest-lived vertebrates on Earth, with documented individuals reaching well over 100 years — and in rare cases closer to 200+.

• Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise, is still alive as of 2026 and is 193 years old. 
• Tu’i Malila, a radiated tortoise given to the Tongan royal family in the 18th century, lived roughly 188 years.
• Adwaita, an Aldabra giant tortoise kept in a zoo for most of its life, was reputed to have lived up to 255 years (though this older estimate isn’t fully confirmed).
• Timothy, a Mediterranean tortoise living in a castle garden in England, reached about 160 years old.

These examples show tortoises can outlive multiple human generations, which is rare in the animal world and contributes to the sense that they “linger” in human environments.

🧬 Why Tortoises Live So Long

Biologically, tortoises have traits that help them age slowly and survive for centuries:

• Slow metabolism — their bodies burn energy very slowly, which reduces cellular stress over time.
• Protective shell — a strong physical defense that reduces predation once they’re adults.
• Low predation in adulthood — once fully grown, most tortoises have few natural enemies.
• Some species may even age more slowly than expected under good environmental conditions, according to recent research.

These biological factors make long lives not just possible, but common among many tortoise species.