A Prickly Affair: The Charm of the Hedgehog

A Prickly Affair by Hugh Warwick

Penguin, £9.99

A book about my passionate affair with this wonderful animal in which I argue that they are the most important creature on the planet. Full of the madness of obsessives who make me seem quite normal, this is a funny look at a creature we all think we know - managing to sneak in a whole array of facts amidst the anarchy of hedgehog hospitals and the International Hedgehog Olympic Games.

Going to your local bookshop is much more fun and will help to keep them alive but, if you cannot wait or get out, try Amazon.

Reviews

The Guardian gave it 'Paperback of the week' status and with it a review so glowing that I blushed - you can read it all here. But just a few choice phrases I will put here, to save you the effort! 'So what is not to love about this book? It is funny, generous, kind, learned (a lot of ancient hedgehog lore), thoughtful, ecologically minded and – this is quite important, actually – unsentimental....I would never have imagined that a book on this subject would have me reading lots of bits of it out to anyone who would listen. But that's what happened here. It achieves its purpose: and in its charm lies its success.' The reviewer was also the first to point out that this is possibly the only book in existence to have commendations from both Jeanette Winterson and Ann Widdecombe!

Jeanette Winterson
'the most glorious mad book...a charming book and will take your mind off everything.'

New Scientist
'…an autobiographical yarn…that is at once humorous, touching and obsessive…An oddly satisfying read.'

Jay Griffiths
'This is an utterly charming book, it is funny and gently serious.'

Libby Purves (Midweek)
'The perfect antidote to the economic crisis.'

The Spectator
'This is a useful and entertaining book, and unsentimental.'

Daily Telegraph
'Hugh Warwick, an otherwise normal father-of-two…'

Oxford Times
'You end up learning an enormous amount about hedgehogs without really noticing, and laugh quite a lot, too.'

Hay Book Festival programme
'A truly eccentric global story of hog lore.'

LA Times
'There's more than a whiff of the legendary naturalist Gerald Durrell here — his humor, his affection and his never-ending curiosity.'