‘What a horrid little snail!” my grandad exclaimed when he saw my new pet. In the past, I might have agreed with him. Snails were slow, moist and silent, making them boring and gross. Yet reading a history book about what the Romans did to them – getting them addicted to milk by lacing it with salt, fattening them up so much they couldn’t fit into their shells – left me horrified.
I vowed that I would right historical wrongs and be the valiant protector of the next snail I saw. I would give it a happy life with all the salt-free milk it could drink.
