Hugh Warwick - A Prickly Affair - my life with hedgehogs

review by Ro on show dec 2010
Lovely Ann Batten from the library ordered this book for herself from the mainland library stock and then let me borrow it before she sent it back. I liked it so much that I bought it.
This is the spiel about the author. Hugh Warwick has been a hedgehog obsessive for over twenty years, ever since an expedition to the Orkney Islands in 1986. From radio tracking hogs in Devon, to working with HogWatch to record the current number of hedgehogs in
the British Isles, Hugh has also been involved in the research that was instrumental in halting the hedgehog cull in the Uists. He makes numerous appearances to talk about hedgehogs and has been made a life member of the British Hedgehog Preservation
Society in recognition of his contribution to hedgehog conservation.
This is from the fly cover of the book:
Obsession. persecution and passion: the hedgehog may be small, but it attracts strong feelings. And Hugh Warwick is not immune. Travelling through fields in Devon and up to the islands of Scotland visiting hedgehog hospitals across Britain and the International

Hedgehog Olympic Games in the USA, exploring China on the trail of the rare hedgehog
species hughi, recorded only twelve times in a hundred years, Hugh sets out to answer our questions about hedgehogs from the practical to the sublime.
Considering hedgehogs and birds, featuring Brian May and Ted Hughes, explaining what
hedgehogs do when they’re not in our gardens and why it is that we like them, this is a funny, eccentric, and moving story of one man’s quest to understand our deep-rooted
affection for these universally know, little-understood animals.
Hedgehogs are often our first encounter with the animal world, yet their numbers are now declining rapidly, down 20 % in the last ten years (as Hugh knows from his involvement in HogWatch) From tips on how to make your garden more hedgehog friendly, to explaining how hedgehogs can save the world. Hugh’s journey finally leads him to understand that our passion for hedgehogs is indelibly linked to out sense of our countryside, our
childhood and ourselves.
review by Ro