Start the Week

- with hedgehogs!

I got back from the Hay Literary Festival late on Saturday after a really wonderfully busy week - talking about hedgehogs and my new book. In fact even when I was supposed to be talking about my new book, I found I kept on talking about hedgehogs - now, I know they are a key part of the story, but I do TRY and talk about different things.

Even the most exciting thing I did - which you can catch on BBC Radio 4 Monday morning at 0900 … when I was on Start the Week (yes, really … more on this in a mo) - opened with Adam Rutherford, the host of the show, calling me Hedgehog Hugh - and then getting the entire tent full of people to make hedgehog snuffling noises!!

Now that is all well a bit of fun, but it also reveals the reason why I dedicate my life so much to hedgehogs. 

My new book is about killing for conservation - a subject that can generate strong feelings - but I have found - over many years - that starting a conversation with hedgehogs is such a useful icebreaker. It is very rare you find someone with strong negative feelings towards them - and this means that you find common ground … wait - I have just re-read that … starting a conversation with another human, about hedgehogs … though - I would also advocate talking to hedgehogs anyway!

Starting from a shared moment of belief is important. It is the reminder that we have more in common with each other than we have that is keeping us apart … and RIGHT NOW - in the run up to a general election, this is even more important to remember. 

How about that - hedgehogs having a serious role in national affairs … every hopeful politician should make a statement about hedgehogs before moving on to any other subject!

Back to Hay - and the recording of Start the Week … I was up on stage with someone who has written a book I adore - Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass, is magnificent and well worth a read or a listen to - she manages to combine her university botany world with her native American world in a beautiful dive into our relationship with nature.

Adam Rutherford was excellent at weaving together our contributions - I was on after Robin, and then came Olivia Laing talking on her new book The Garden Against Time. 

By the time you read this the broadcast may be over - and I will know what I said! I had worked so hard to pull together ideas for my 13 minutes of glory … and all I can remember is Adam asking me something about hedgehogs as the first question!! 

Please let me know what you think - not just of my section, of course. Would love to hear how we all came across. I have not been as nervous and simultaneously excited for quite some time.

Following the recording I linked up with Amir Khan - again, like Robin, I wondered whether he could live up to the personality he brilliantly presents on social media - and I also wondered whether he was truly human - as he does all the work for nature (he is a big hedgehog fan) as he is president of the RSPB and vice president of the Wildlife Trusts … but he also works 4 days a week as a GP … as well as offering up brilliant recipes on instagram … well, he is wonderful - I am thrilled to have met him.

After restoring myself with coffee I found Robin was chatting to my old friend Kate Raworth. Kate is one of the gang of people I share our ‘orchard’ with - and is also author of the groundbreaking and massively influential book, Doughnut Economics … read it! Listening to these two wonderfully wise women talk gave me real hope … I would happily hand over the running of the country - the world even - to people like them!

Who would you like to see making the decisions? As I write this - the news has talked about both main parties having to focus on defence and economics - how these are the two most important topics. And I am screaming at the radio - WHAT ABOUT ECOLOGY?? Without a healthy ecosystem, nothing else matters ... 

I hope you have a lovely week ... my son has his LAST A level today ... and we become a school-free house!!