A penguin becoming man's best friend and the two forging a bond to last a lifetime sounds as ludicrous as it does absurd... but it doesn't make it untrue.
Back in the mid-seventies, this fairytale became Tom Michell's reality - a young, free and ambitious 23-year-old who'd taught himself Spanish from age 12, and yearned to share his passion for the language in South America.
From the rural downs of Sussex, he broke free and actualised his dream to teach, and in his early 20s he secured himself a job as an assistant master at a posh school in Argentina. The decision would spark magic.
"In 2016, Tom Michell, then 64, penned a crazy tale about his time in the country - and how he helped a dying penguin," entitled The Penguin Lessons.
A film adaptation of the same name is slated for release in April 2025, telling the stunning true life story of the teacher's quest to save a penguin after it washed ashore on a Uruguay beach following a catastrophic oil spill.
The arrival of the stricken Magellanic - a South American breed - penguin transforms Tom's life in the process...
The story began in 1973 when Tom left his family home in Surrey to teach at St George's school in Buenos Aires. Inspired by exotic tales from his mother, Tom sought adventure abroad.
"Her passion for the exotic clearly burned in me too," he explained...
By 1976, during holidays spent at an expat family's seaside apartment in Uruguay, Tom encountered an oil spill disaster that had claimed many sea creatures' lives. Amongst them was one struggling penguin that caught Tom's attention.
"[They] lay dead... covered in thick oil..."
After saving this flightless bird by cleaning it with household items like butter and detergent, he named it Juan Salvador Gaviota – meaning John Saviour Seagull. An unexpected friendship blossomed between man and bird.
"Damn you! Let go!" he remembered yelling when bitten by Juan during its rescue...
'Quickly I scanned... rubbish found along high-water marks...' leading him to find materials for rescuing Juan."