To Wildlife Aid’s Simon Cowell, animal emergencies are just a typical day’s work. In fact, he and his staff deal with more than 12,000 wildlife incidents each year. From a hedgehog trapped in a freezer, to a little owl colliding with a 17-ton lorry, there are not many rescue situations that he has not had to deal with.

Wildlife Aid is Britain’s leading wildlife rehabilitation centre and, as such, has become the subject of the enormously successful television series Wildlife SOS. Having been on our screens for over a decade, it is adored by both adults and children for its educational information, its heart-warming rescue stories and of course for its down-to-earth humour. As Simon himself says, ‘Being bitten by badgers, kicked by deer and “taloned” by owls is all in a day’s work, but it still really hurts!’

The tales about the residents that the centre has helped to nurse back to health will make you laugh and cry in equal measure. With information-packed fact files about each animal to accompany the stories, and bursting with beautiful colour pictures, this book is a must-have for very animal lover.