All I want for Christmas is ...

a pile of logs and some dried leaves!

Well - greedily - I would like you to buy my books!!! This is the one time of year I feel that it is reasonable to remind everyone that there are a bunch of them out there and I think they are really quite good and would make amazing presents - more on that at the end!!

If you would like more than just comments on here to link up with me, try the new and blooming BlueSky.

I am also writing for Scribehound Gardening - one of 30 contributors who give a piece a day of writing related to the garden … my next piece is out soon and is about robins!

But - before I do a gratuitous plug for my books, I want to speak up for the hedgehogs … you know, I once received possibly the greatest accolade I could every hope for in being referred to as the Lorax of Hedgehogs!!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

What a hedgehog would like for Christmas is for you all to spend a little time thinking like a hedgehog … this might seem like an odd idea, but it is actually a really useful tool. It is an extension of the work of the Empathy Museum (founded by my friend Roman Krznaric) - where one of the projects they run is ‘A Mile in My Shoes’ in which you get to don a pair of donated shoes and walk while listening to that person tell you their story - giving you a chance to imagine a very different life.

Anyway - my idea is to take it a little further - go into your garden or local green space and try and imagine life as a hedgehog! I have done the full on tummy on ground snuffle - yes, neighbours may get worried!!! But you also do get to see the land from a very different perspective!

For an easy guide to just ten things you can do - have a read of this.

Back to the hedgehog’s wish for Christmas … well, a month or so ago, while visiting my mother, I chopped down a dead cherry tree for her - but rather than burning the wood I built a hedgehog house! It is not an elegant creation, as the picture shows, but it is functional. There is a space within large enough for a hedgehog to pull leaves for bedding. Rather brilliantly the hedgehog then turns around and around - using its spines to comb the leaves into a laminate structure that provides really good insulation against the challenges of winter!

Though this was not a cost-free exercise - just after I took that photo I decided to put a couple of longer pieces of wood over it, anchoring the structure. I had seen them under a bush ... but as I lifted the first piece I discovered that this was also home to a wasp nest ... I was soon running, taking off my shirt and realising that my beard had trapped other angry insects ... I will not share the resulting photos of swollen faced me!!!

So - the hedgehog wish for Christmas - have a read of the top tips leaflet - and pick one or more of them to do!!

And now back to the advert … and the usual caveat. I would love everyone to rush out to their local bookshop and by books in person, but that is not always possible. So - I use Amazon links as a guide and hope they will trigger a rush to the remaining bookshops … but if you can’t …

A Prickly Affair was my first book and remains a firm favourite - it is the natural history of hedgehogs but told through the stories of people who are passionate about the animals.

Hedgehogs is an exploration of the iconography of these fascinating animals!

The Beauty in the Beast was one of the most fun books to write - I headed off to meet 15 people a bit like me - and they talked with me about their love for different animals.

Linescapes was a more serious look at the way our landscape has been chopped up and connected by the linear features we build.

The three books I have written for Graffeg have been great fun to do! Hedgehogs, Beavers, and Water Voles. Bats is coming next year!

My most recent narrative non-fiction is Cull of the Wild - I am very proud of this and only last night found it had been nominated for another award!!

And finally - for this update (am still writing more!) Five Nights Out - just a pound!! An easy read for the younger nature lover.

Thank you for not shouting at me - I do not actually have a ‘job’ as such - I earn my living from writing books, doing public speaking, taking photographs and doing my best to help hedgehogs …

Probably one more update before Christmas - and that may well be about the recent report from Wild Justice that has looked into what developers are actually delivering to help wildlife ... plot spoiler ... it is not as good as we would like!!