Ten top fictional badgers

John Dougherty is a children’s author, poet, and songwriter. In his Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face books, the badgers are the bad guys ... like actual badgers.

One of Dougherty's top ten fictional badgers, as shared at the Guardian:

The transmogrified Wart (from The Sword in the Stone by TH White)

The actual badger to whom the Wart is sent by Merlyn is a wonderful character too, but the conversation the Wart, in badger-form and clearly having taken on some of its nature, has with a hedgehog - moving from a grumpy “Hedge-pig… I am going to munch you up,” to a resigned and reluctant cheerfulness - is an absolute delight.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Sword in the Stone is on Gill Lewis's top ten list of birds in books; it is the first part of The Once and Future King, which is among Philip Womack's best classic children's books and Lev Grossman's five top fantasy books.

--Marshal Zeringue