The Last Hedgehog

To mark and celebrate National Hedgehog Awareness Week, Pam Ayres has written a less-than-fond farewell from 'the last hedgehog left on earth' - a delightful, hilarious and thought-provoking elegy to that most beloved inhabitant of the British countryside, the common hedgehog.Pam Ayres' spiky and wonderful creation reminds us that unless we take steps to prevent it, they will soon be far from 'common' indeed: beautifully illustrated by Alice Tait, the poem sees our hero tell of all the terrible ends his family come to at our own hands - and exactly what we can still do to keep them alive, and see them thrive once more.

Winner of Books are My Bag Poetry Award 2018 (UK)

“When I say that Pam Ayres ought to be the Oxford Professor of Poetry, even the Poet Laureate, I am not being facetious ... Ayres uses simple verse forms - comic ballads or folk song idioms - to make poignant observations about tiresome husbands, gossiping wives, false teeth or battery hens. I find her work sweet and sour, gentle and sad, and often very moving in its wistful way.”

The Last Hedgehog is a little book, but it's an important book and it's a profound book . . . It's sweet and wry and everything we'd expect from Pam Ayres . . . but at the end it gives the reader a bit of kicking. -- Graham Norton, BBC Radio

When I say that Pam Ayres ought to be the Oxford Professor of Poetry, even the Poet Laureate, I am not being facetious ... Ayres uses simple verse forms - comic ballads or folk song idioms - to make poignant observations about tiresome husbands, gossiping wives, false teeth or battery hens.
I find her work sweet and sour, gentle and sad, and often very moving in its wistful way.

Daily Mail
Her humour, which verges on the black at times, is contagious and so original Daily Telegraph
A national treasure. There are clear comparisons between Pam and Sir John Betjeman Daily Express
Pam Ayres has a quality of fun which glows ever more brightly as newer, lesser entertainers make their bid for stardom. The Scotsman
Pam Ayres, the bestselling poet, writes as rhapsodically about the Wonderbra as Wordsworth did about daffodils. Guardian
Forget the corny comedian: Pam Ayres is a proper poet, whose wistful, funny, and perceptive verse captures both the joy and unfairness of life. Sunday Times

Pam Ayres has been a regular on television and radio since winning the talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1975 - on Just a Minute, The Comedy Quiz, Countdown and her own series, Ayres on the Air. She performs her solo stage show throughout Britain and around the world and has a huge fan base in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Pam is one of Britain's best-loved personalities and was awarded the MBE in 2004.

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