The Sleepy Hedgehog Books Society
- Preserving the Odd & Ghostly Since 1955 -
The Society was founded after a series of rather peculiar incidents involving thievery, a sleepy hedgehog and a thoroughly respectable gathering of scholars and enthusiasts.
But it all started with a sturdy sketchbook, a sensible ink pot and moonlit jaunts through a foggy old graveyard…
Essential Society Rules, I'm afraid
Please always have a sturdy sketchbook, a sensible inkpot and a nib pen handy • If one must be held, tea must always be taken before a séance, followed by biscuits and cake. Never the other way round and NEVER together • All findings must be recorded using the proper sepia ink borrowed from Old Tom's Milkbar • No half-hearted gossip from unreliable sources • And please don't exaggerate your sightings • It would be jolly smashing if every page could be pleasant on the eye. We'd all rather not be gazing down at a pig's ear we can't make head nor tail of.
Honorary Society Members
Louisa Hamilton White • Lord Forbes-Bogglington • Beatrix Butterworth • Montgomery Winston • Sir Herbert Sourbee • Lidia Rosewood • Lady Penelope Wibblespoon • Brigadier Reginald Millspod
The Society Library
I'm afraid The Sleepy Hedgehog Books Society of Odd & Ghostly Things - Volume I & II editions have gone missing yet again!
We suspect the culprit is Bothington Squinch up to his old tricks again. But never fear! We should have them back in our grasp, toodle-pip.
If you aren't yet a Society Member and you'd like to be kept 'in the know' about all this sort of thing, we have a newsletter signup form a little further down the page.
Would you like to join The Sleepy Hedgehog Books Society Newsletter?
But to do so, I'm afraid you must answer this correctly:
What is grumpy, wriggles and rather partial to haunting people's letterboxes at three o'clock in the morning?
Hint: It isn't a ghost’s pocket handkerchief.
We'll never bombard you or use your address for anything other than newsletteriness shenanigans.
A Short History Of Rather Odd Events
By Beatrix Butterworth
------
Scholarly Expert in Spectral Documentation
From The Sleepy Hedgehog Books Society
We all know, far too well, of the scandalous thievery of Louisa Hamilton White’s field notes and sketchbooks from right under her nose! It was a terrible state of affairs. Umpteen years of sketching (at least twenty-five), taking detailed notes on goodness knows how many moonlit jaunts through foggy old places (all while risking life and limb)… all whisked away into the night without so much as a by-your-leave.
And these weren’t just any old run-of-the-mill sketchbooks and field notes, not by a long shot! They were rare tomes of unique ghostly observation, brimming with intricate illustrations and Louisa’s trademark wit and weirdness.Scholars and amateur ghostologists gathered from across the globe to recover these missing treasures. Seances were held, graveyards were watched like beacons and umpteen tea-filled, lantern-lit meetings, about what on earth to do next and where to look, were held into the early hours for years on end.But the field notes and sketchbooks were nowhere to be found.
But... in a rather handy turn of events, the search became the start of something rather brilliant indeed! The Sleepy Hedgehog Books Society!Mummy and Louisa were the earliest members. By the time I was old enough to join, there were twenty-two of us at the heart of it all, though the wider ranks of the society stretched far and wide. We all gloomily had it in our heads that Louisa’s notes and drawings were lost and gone forever.
But even more snazzery was afoot! Years after their disappearance, a slightly tatty bundle of volumes was plucked out of a bramble patch. A snail-nibbled bundle was dragged out of a clump of grumpy ivy. And another was found tucked away in a little boat in Pibbles Pot Pond!
The bundles were rushed to The Sleepy Hedgehog Books Society, now also a boutique publishing house (called Sleepy Hedgehog Books dedicated to the restoration of rare antique books of oddness). Inside each volume were Louisa’s sketchbook and field notes! Perfectly intact but now beautifully designed, elegantly hand-scribed, delicately printed and bound into rather lovely volumes indeed. Quite the ghostly handiwork!With them was a letter with a signature nobody could make head nor tail of, whether it was a flourish, or a scratch or an otherworldly script, nobody had the foggiest.
The writer, whoever (or whatever) they were, claimed that the ghosts of Grimslydale Graveyard had painstakingly preserved Louisa’s work, then carefully curated it into books to be kept safe and sound in the Grand Library of Hauntington Hall. But so many ghostly fingers had flicked through them so often, the pages were rather grubby, frightfully thin and very nearly falling apart! So the volumes, the letter said, were to be entrusted to the living for safekeeping.
The letter did also hint that this was only a loan. But nobody in the Sleepy Hedgehog Book Society of Odd & Ghostly Things took any notice of that at first. We were all far too full of beans!To make jolly sure Louisa's work would never be lost again, the books (with full permission from the Head Librarian at Hauntington Hall) were faithfully republished to match the ghostly-bound volumes. Each with pages brimming with ghostly mischief and mysterious charm, at the ready to glue the eyes of a new generation of curious souls, ghostly scholars and amateur ghostologists. As well as being terribly handy to have at hand should anyone ever find themselves in a ghostly pickle.
A Word of Warning Though
These volumes are quite risky to own, so it's always best not to sleep with them next to your pillow. There's also a chance gaggles of ghosts might pop by in the dead of night to gawp at them. Terribly sorry about that.
© All content copyright Louisa Hamilton White 2024.
Curator of Curious Things at The Sleepy Hedgehog Books Society
& Head Librarian of Hauntington Hall.
All worldwide rights reserved.-------We love the scratching of pencils on paper and the oddness that comes out of our noggins far too much to ever use AI.The Sleepy Hedgehog Books Society
P.o. Box 7044 Beaumaris 3193
Victoria, Australia
&
22 Smushy Brook Lane
The Village of Bogglington Hole
England BL0 0GH- Please post all correspondence to our Beaumaris address -
terms & conditions
Intellectual Property
All content on our website, including text, graphics, logos and images, is the property of Louisa Hamilton White and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not use, reproduce, or distribute any content from our website without our prior written permission. I dread to think what the ghost will do if you do!