Hedgehogs

I spotted this one (left) outside a café in Barcelona: he's just emerged from a review of 2008 portraits, now sorted for my website.

Reports today indicate actual hedgehog numbers are in steep decline: 36 million when I was growing up - fewer than a million now. And what's more, the population has apparently gone down by a third in the past decade alone. (How this data on such notoriously secretive creatures comes to be compiled, heaven alone knows.)

Coincidentally, sales in France of Muriel Barbery's novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog were also around the million mark following its publication in 2006: Caroline read it with enjoyment, so was keen to accompany me to a local showing of the film version last night. Judging by the amount of nose-blowing around us at the end, I was not alone in being moved by it. Apart from the largely redundant music and a few non sequiturs in the plotting, it was great entertainment.