Today we take for granted our concern for the hedgehog. Everyone loves hedgehogs and most of us are worried at the massive decline in numbers we are seeing. For example, there are nearly 40,000 people signed up to Hedgehog Street, the campaign to open up gardens for their benefit.

Hugh Warwick During the reign of Elizabeth I there was a bounty introduced for each hedgehog killed

But our relationship with this wonderful animal was not always so warm-hearted. During the reign of Elizabeth I there was a bounty introduced for each hedgehog killed and they were often considered a creature portent in stories. The Brothers’ Grimm had seriously adult themes attached to the hedgehog and some folklore associated them with doom and disaster.

All this changed in 1905 – and from that moment on, pretty much all stories have the hedgehog as at least benign, if not the loveable feature. I have two shelves on my bookcase dedicated just to hedgehog stories and not one of them has a bad word to say about them.

And what happened in 1905? The publication of a book about a hedgehog, now so well know: Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.

If it were not for the staggeringly discriminatory times in which she lived, it is possible that Beatrix Potter would have never written this, and the other 22 tales for which she is so famous. A brilliant observer of nature, artist and scientist, this woman could have been recognised as a thinker in the league of Charles Darwin had she been born a man.