She found the hedgehog trapped in the netting by her garden pond in winter: “the landscape was shivering.” It was a tiny mass of spines that gave only the slightest tremor when she tried to free it. It was dying, too weak and too cold, and in some way Sarah Sands was responsible.
When people hear that Sands has written a book about hedgehogs, they chuckle indulgently. Hedgehogs are cute! Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and all that. It’s a surprising subject for Sands, who at 62 has held some of the most senior roles in both print and broadcast journalism, from editing national newspapers to a three-year stint at Radio 4’s flagship news programme, Today.
Of course hedgehogs are also about death. We “cuteify” these creatures
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