Authors Electric

 Hedgehogs are part of British culture, and are so distinctive that they have figured in our literature for a long time. They are in serious decline in the UK these days, thanks to road kill and pesticides, so I was thrilled when I set up the camera trap to see if foxes were digging up our Jerusalem artichokes and discovered a hedgehog bustling past instead. The artichokes are fine, by the way, just a bit slow to emerge, and are now three foot tall. Since then we reckon we have spotted five different individuals, thanks to Brambles Crunchy Hedgehog Food , which is very popular, and makes their munching audible halfway down the garden when they arrive for their breakfast – 21.30 at the moment. Bread and milk, the traditional offering, is very bad for them, and cat biscuits make another acceptable and safe alternative. They are incredibly entertaining, as they have no compunction about shoving competitors for their lady friends out of the way, and have very noisy and lengthy wooing s...

Last year I joined a delightfully old-fashioned debating society. New members are voted in by the black ball/white ball system, where the appropriate ball is put in a box, and the results counted (origin of the term to blackball someone). Speeches are strictly limited in time, and no one is allowed to speak more than once other than the proposer and opposer, and no one is allowed to interrupt. In these days of unbridled rudeness on programmes such as Question Time, when the whole panel may be clamouring to get their point across, this is refreshingly civilised. This term we have a topic that may be of interest to those reading this – This House believes that the best children’s books have been written in the last fifty years. I would be very interested to have some replies here, to see what other people think. Of course, in true debating style, first we have to establish what is meant by best , by child , by written and then, in these electronic times, what is meant by book . ...