And the batty winners are ...

Well, as I predicted, there were fewer entrants into The Bat Book giveaway … 40 compared to the 120 who entered the hedgehog competition. But that is still a very reasonable measure of love for these amazing creatures.

So here was the question …

But my favourite thing - was discovering how many words into the book, ignoring chapter titles, I got before I mentioned hedgehogs!!! And that is the question you need to answer!

I thought my question was so simple and I even gifted the answer in the next picture. But you lot - you had to be, well, accurate … and while there were a few saying it was the 12th word - but most hedged your bets and said, 11 words until … the 12th word being hedgehogs … and then, there had to be one, took it to another level … Pete Fraser wrote:

“hedgehogs is the 58th word including title page and dedications, but excluding contents (which are chapter headings)”

Well, the same as before - I numbered the answers, 1-40, and then asked the interweb to randomly choose two numbers … and those numbers were, 4, and 23, which means the winners of a signed copy of The Bat Book are …

Brian Stabler

and

Jane Kirkwood

Please message me with your postal addresses and I will get copies in the post to you as soon as possible. Oh, and if you feel the urge to write (nice?) reviews on websites that take reviews … for any of my books for that matter, thank you!

For those who did not win - and everyone else - here are a couple more glimpses into the world of bats …

It is a shame we have none of the flying foxes or fruit bats here - they are such spectacular animals. Though you can see some in zoos - here is a not very good photograph from Shepreth Wildlife Park that I took recently, after performing my role as Patron of the Shepreth Wildlife Conservation Charity.

Back to normal business next time - no more books to give away for quite a while … deadline for current book is March 2027! And time to that is being eroded by the need to earn a living - this time of year I am lucky enough to pick up quite a few photo jobs for the amazing Oxford Festival of the Arts - snapping exhibitions and concerts. I will also be talking at the festival on July 12th - you can grab that before running around the corner (alongside me!) to see Philip Pullman!