Fallen hero

At 6.58am today a hedgehog lay flattened on the inside lane of the southbound M40 just after the motorway broadens into four lanes before its junction with the M25.

This, surely, was the most fearless hedgehog in the history of the world. It chose to take on the M40 at his widest point, with seven lanes to negotiate. Amazing pluck.

What is not - and possible never will be - known is whether this heroic animal started from the eastern side, so perished on the first lane that it tried to cross, or whether it attempted the expedition from the west and therefore incredibly made it all the way across the northbound lanes then gathered its thoughts on the central reservation before attempting the final push and also making it across three of the southbound lanes before being cruelly and tragically cut down just when the end was in sight, like Wilfred Owen.