My name is Hugh Warwick and I have been studying hedgehogs, on and off, for the last 22 years. I was lured away from ecological research into journalism, and after a stint at the BBC Natural History Unit, I have scraped a living as a freelance, writing, photographing, making radio programmes and films about wildlife, environmental and development issues.
But now a dream has come true - Penguin have commissioned me to write about hedgehogs, about their behaviour and ecology, about the impact that we have on them and they have on us. I will also indulge myself by exploring Schopenhauer's hedgehog's dilemma; hedgehogs want to be close to each other, but if they get too close, they hurt each other with their spines, yet if they are too far apart, they are lonely. This is a remarkably apt metaphor for our relationship with the natural world.
So please, leave me your stories about hedgehogs - anything and everything that has ever interested or surprised you, I want to be able to use real examples to illustrate as many of the points as possible.
