‘Slightly Foxed is a very civilized way to appreciate books and writers. No shouting, no hype, just beautifully presented enthusiasms, most of which are irresistible.’ – Michael Palin

The Magazine for Booklovers

Unaffected by the winds of fashion and the hype of the big publishers, for the past twenty years Slightly Foxed been introducing its readers to some of the thousands of good books that long ago disappeared from the review pages and often from bookshop shelves. Companionable and unstuffy, it has a wide range of contributors – some well-known, some not – who all write very personally about the books they choose. It’s not so much a review magazine as a magazine of enthusiasms – some of them quite quirky.

Slightly Foxed isn’t just a good read, it’s a pleasure to hold and to look at – 96 pages in a neat format, printed on fine cream paper and attractively illustrated. People like to keep it on their shelves – and they’re usually not very keen to lend it. When times are tricky there’s nothing like a good read for taking you out of yourself – so why not try a subscription or the latest issue this summer? We hope you’ll be able to say, with the novelist Bernard Cornwell, ‘I won’t say that Slightly Foxed is essential, it’s just that I can’t live without it any more.’

‘If you need a good gift for someone who loves to read – or if you love to read and want a little treat for yourself, check out the delightful Slightly Foxed. It’s a quarterly magazine with essays about books, not reviews, but personal recommendations. For people who read a lot, it can be hard to find new suggestions, and every time I read Slightly Foxed, I add several titles to my list.’
– Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project
Slightly Foxed Issue 83, Autumn 2024

Coming attractions: JIM RING is dazzled by Barbara Tuchman’s August 1914, RACHEL SHERLOCK discovers Agatha Christie’s alter ego, DAVID FLEMING finds comfort in Housman’s poetry, RAFFAELLA BARKER remembers her extraordinary mother Elspeth, JONATHAN KEATES sees the end of Empire with Gwyn Griffin, SUZI FEAY follows the child hero of Leon Garfield’s Smith to Georgian London, MICHAEL BARBER changes trains with Isherwood’s Mr Norris, HAZEL WOOD is delighted by Dorothy Whipple’s childhood memoir, GUY STAGG joins Patrick Leigh Fermor on retreat, JANE RIDLEY recalls the scandal of Crawfie and The Little Princesses, and much more besides . . .

A subscription to the magazine also brings with it various benefits such as reduced membership fees for a number of literary clubs and organizations, such as Gladstone’s Library and The London Library, discounts at various independent bookshops around the country and reduced rates on all books, back issues and merchandise produced by Slightly Foxed and all other books stocked in our online bookshop too.

Founded in 2004 by former John Murray Editors Gail Pirkis and Hazel Wood, in 2024 the magazine celebrated its 20th birthday. Slightly Foxed magazine and our books are made in the UK by traditional printers and book-binders.

‘The business of reading should please the hand and eye as well as the brain, and Slightly Foxed editions – books or quarterly – are elegant creations. Content follows form, offering new discoveries and old favourites to curious and discriminating readers.’
Hilary Mantel
SFE 53 & SFE 54 Laurie Lee, Cider with Rosie & As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

Books

Our readers enjoy the way Slightly Foxed opens up unexpected new horizons and they love the way it looks and feels – delightfully illustrated and printed on elegant cream paper. They love our beautifully produced series of classic memoirs and children’s books that have been allowed to slip out of print too.

Slightly Foxed brings back forgotten voices through its Slightly Foxed and Plain Foxed Editions, a series of beautifully produced little pocket hardback reissues of classic memoirs, all of them absorbing and highly individual. Our non-fiction list of cloth-bound limited-editions was launched in 2008 and encompasses some of the twentieth-century’s best memoirs and biographies, with works by Edward Ardizzone, Gerald Durrell, Anne Fadiman, Graham Greene, Helene Hanff, Luke Jennings, Michael Holroyd, James Lees-Milne, Hilary Mantel, Gavin Maxwell, V. S. Pritchett, Dodie Smith and Rosemary Sutcliff, among others.

For younger bookworms – and nostalgic older ones too – there’s the Slightly Foxed Cubs series, in which we’ve reissued Rosemary Sutcliff’s Roman and post-Roman novels, classic nature novels by BB and a number of Ronald Welch’s outstanding series of historical novels, in a handsome format with the original illustrations.

‘Produced by people who love books, for people who love books.’
Belgravia Books
Foxed Pod Episode 45 | Ronald Blythe: A Life Well Written

Podcast

Come behind the scenes with the staff of Slightly Foxed to learn what makes this unusual literary magazine tick, meet some of its varied friends and contributors, and hear their personal recommendations for favourite and often forgotten books that have helped, haunted, informed or entertained them.

Think of it as an audio version of the magazine, full of interesting bookishness, interviews and discussion – all set around our kitchen table, here in Hoxton Square.

‘A must listen for avid readers’

This companion podcast to the excellent quarterly periodical is a must listen for avid readers – and if you haven’t checked out the magazine you should do that too . . . The conversations are warm and illuminating, and guaranteed to add to your ever growing ‘to-read’ pile.
Laura Davis, Listen Up

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By signing up for our free email newsletter or our free printed catalogues, you will not automatically be subscribed to the quarterly magazine. To become a subscriber to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly Magazine, please visit our subscriptions page.

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Sign up to our e-newsletter

Sign up for dispatches about new issues, books and podcast episodes, highlights from the archive, events, special offers and giveaways.