The Hedgehog's Dilemma: A Tale of Obsession, Nostalgia, and the World's Most Charming Mammal

by Hugh Warwick

Overview

In this wonderfully entertaining, adorable book, Hugh Warwick, an environmental writer and photographer, examines the relationship between the hedgehog and man, and how the hedgehog became so beloved. Traveling the globe in search of his quarry, Warwick eventually discovers a new breed called Hugh's Hedgehog.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608192366
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	08/21/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Hugh Warwick is an environmental writer and photographer. He free-lances across the print spectrum from BBC Wildlife and the New Scientist to The Daily Telegraph to radio documentaries for Radio 4. He is most recently responsible for stopping the great hedgehog massacre of Uist.
Hugh Warwick is an ecologist and environmental writer with a particular fondness for hedgehogs. Hugh has written for various publications, including BBC Wildlife, New Scientist and The Daily Telegraph. He is an accomplished public speaker, giving regular talks on conservation issues. His role as spokesperson for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society has led to many appearances on national radio and television.

Editorial Reviews

In this engaging mélange of memoir, history and cultural study, British environmental writer and photographer Warwick details his love affair with hedgehogs, the "unlikely sirens," and his career as a "hedgehog advocate," convinced that the animal has much to tell humans "about the way we live within what is left of the natural environment." Along with descriptions of early hedgehog-inspired folk tales as well as the recent worldwide craze of hedgehog pet-keeping, Warwick provides wonderful insight into what the philosopher Schopenhauer called the "Hedgehog's Dilemma"-how can two of the spiky animals be close to each other without causing pain? Warwick describes how they overcome obvious obstacles to reproduction and skillfully extends the idea to explore the current state of human-animal interaction: "The dilemma we face is trying to get close enough to the wild without corrupting it out of existence." Warwick shows how the hedgehog offers a unique insight into how humans can protect nature, since it is "the first and probably only wild animal that we urbanites and suburbanites have a chance of getting close to." (Dec.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly