Have you heard about Hugh?
The Hedgehog who
Got into trouble on the A32
He was out there eating worms
When he took a wrong turn
And now he can’t get across to get home …
For more photos and a chance to comment, pop over to my substack …
So - have you heard about Hugh??
I am lucky enough to have a friend who writes wonderful songs. Nick Cope first came into my life as my youngest was nearing school age … so we did not have many sessions in church halls in the morning with Nick - but they were very memorable. He is also the regular star turn at the amazing Wood Festival - where I have run a stage.
Wood Festival has an animal icon for each year - and a few years back it was (after considerable lobbying from me) the hedgehog. Nick decided to write a hedgehog song to go with it … cast around for a name for the hedgehog and bumped into me!!! So - Hugh was born!
The song is fantastic because, like so much of Nick’s work it is cute and funny but has a messaged tucked away. In this instance, the threats that the road network present our hedgehogs.
I am very far from alone in being a Nick fan (though I have to say, the reflected glory I receive from being associated with the hedgehog song has now made me famous among the 5 year olds of East Oxford!) - he was swept up by CBeebies and his Popcast programmes have been a great hit.
This in turn has stimulated a quite wonderful hour long show that is about to visit Edinburgh at the Pleasance Courtyard before heading to London and the Soho theatre.
Rosie & Hugh’s Great Big Adventure is aimed at 3-8 year olds, but I was sat up in the balcony of the North Wall theatre, laughing and shedding the odd tear too. If you get a chance to go and see them perform I cannot recommend it highly enough.
What the writer Victoria Saxton and director Ria Parry have done is weave a really good story around a whole sequence of Nick’s songs - an absolute masterpiece. And while I might, if being picky, have a thing or two to say about the real life behaviour of polar bears and the diet of hedgehogs … that would be missing the point rather!
Borrow a child - if you need the excuse - or do as I did and just go anyway - you will not be disappointed.
In other reviews … my latest book seems to have been very well received in the USA, which is pleasing. I did a long interview with Brandon Keim which he turned into this piece for the Nautilus magazine … and then did an all too short interview with Mark Lynch for WICN Radio. Both of these people I would have been so happy to sit with for hours (preferably in person and maybe with a beer) as they really loved the book, Cull of the Wild.
Perhaps even more exciting, though, was the review in the Critic. Not because it is more effusive, it is not - but because the author is someone who shares a very different world view to me. Someone who enjoys hunting. In one tweet he said that he ‘nearly loved’ the book … for a brief moment I thought that said ‘really’ - but hey, nearly is pretty good too!
If any of you have read Cull of the Wild and feel moved to leave a review on Amazon (or other sites) I would really appreciate it - obviously it would be better if you enjoyed the book ... but ...
Right - about to head off to a festival - just in case any of you want something a bit different - pop along to Chepstow this weekend for the wonderful Green Gathering! And … it looks like it won’t rain!