Blog | Slightly Foxed

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

Gail, Hazel, Jennie and host Philippa are joined at the table by eminent biographer Adam Sisman to discuss the delicate business of delving into the lives of others – warts and all or, sometimes, all warts no all. The actor Nigel Anthony lends his voice to Edward Lear’s surreal verbal contortions, unearthing the deep sorrow that hid beneath the nonsense.

‘I have been listening to your podcast with delight . . .’

S. Forrest, Toronto, Canada

‘I have been listening to your podcast with delight. It has been an entertaining change from the usual sensationalism. It’s great fun, like sitting with an erudite friend but not needing to contribute yourself. What could be better?’

‘I’m so enjoying the SF podcasts . . .’

A. Mosley, Devon

‘I’m so enjoying the SF podcasts. As someone living on their own there is something very comforting about pouring a glass of wine and listening to sparkling people eclectically wandering through their collective experiences, memories and literary wisdom. A brilliant idea.’

‘I wish you were all sitting round my table . . .’

M. Allison, Kent

‘I wish you were all sitting round my table! I am sure you would be the best sort of visitors, and far and away the most interesting. Thank you for another super podcast, looking forward to the next one.’

Episode 7: A Window on the World

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

Gail, Steph and Anna go behind the scenes with booksellers Brett Wolstencroft of Daunt Books and Kathleen Smith of Topping & Co. Bath to talk about the reality and romance of life running two of the country’s finest bookshops. Andrew Hawkins recounts the tale of a London publisher who tried his hand at repping and ended up in a spot of bother with a drunken poet in Fife, and there’s the usual round-up of recommended reading and news from Hoxton Square.

Up There on a Visit

Mike Petty on visiting a poet

It was the custom then, in the late ’70s, and still is for all I know, for editors to saunter forth from their ivory towers and visit bookshops with the reps, experience life at the sharp end of the book trade and so on. It was called being ‘on the road’ but tended to concentrate on large centres of population easily reached from London. Nothing could disguise the jittery bonhomie of the unfortunate rep chosen for this honour, or the loathing in the eyes of the bookseller forced to undergo ordeal by young puppy on top of the usual ordeal by rep.

1 Dec 2005

From the Slightly Foxed archives || Not Swinging, Just Dancing

As regular readers know, each issue of the magazine itself ranges far and wide across all sorts of books and subjects – from non-fiction, fiction, poetry, biography, memoir, guides and even, once, a manual for operating a British Seagull Co. outboard motor but as our newsletters have been rather more non-fiction focused of late, we thought it was high time we shared a recommendation for fiction. So, in this selected article from the archives, we’re dancing back to Issue 35 (Autumn 2012) with Linda Leatherbarrow on the novels of Edna O’Brien.

O’Brian’s World

Grant McIntyre on Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels

O’Brian’s mastery of language is most wonderful of all. He manages to capture that mixture of toughness and grace which, for me at least, makes formal eighteenth-century English so attractive. Also the verbal violence that makes demotic eighteenth-century English so vivid. He catches Stephen’s subtle Irishness, or the slightly unidiomatic English of highly educated South Americans, or the competitiveness of children, or the way one wife can make her opinion of another very clear without expressing it, or Jack can make his authority absolute without disrespect – and he does it all in the language of the time.

1 Dec 2014

Oh Nancy, Nancy!

Sam Leith on the Nancy Drew mysteries

The Nancy Drew mysteries (I didn’t know, then, that ‘mystery’ is what Americans call a detective story) were the first series of books to which I became completely addicted. And, since there were dozens of them, it seemed as if I could never run out – useful, for a child who weekly exhausted his borrowing limit at Dorking Library. My grandfather got into the habit, for a bit, of buying me one a week. Whenever I had a book token, it was into the bookshop at the top of the main street (I can’t for the life of me remember its name) that I would go. Oh! the anticipation of a fresh one, a fresh mystery, smelling of new paperback, picked off the long shelf of Nancy Drew books in the children’s section and taken home in a crisp paper bag.

1 Mar 2019

The House that Jack Built

Grant McIntyre on Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels

Most people would agree that Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels, set when Britain’s Navy had first Napoleon and then the USA to confront, are among the best historical fiction the twentieth century produced. In fact plenty would drop that word ‘among’, since the books contain so much variety, perceptiveness and subtle comedy, so many wonderful themes and inventions of genius which add to the fun of reading them.

1 Jun 2014

A Friendship of Opposites

Grant McIntyre on Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels

Never one for naval yarns I didn’t at first spot Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels, which are set in the wars at sea against Napoleon and then the United States. But once I’d tried one I bought them by the handful. It was like that for most of his readers. O’Brian was not successful at first; critics took him for a kind of retread C. S. Forester, and in fact his books did look a bit dated, published next to Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers for instance, or One Hundred Years of Solitude. A surprising few – Iris Murdoch, Charlton Heston, William Waldegrave and David Mamet, for example – were passionate about them from the start, but ten years passed before most of us realized something new and extraordinary had appeared.

1 Dec 2013

‘Thank you for your podcast . . .’

E. Tennessen, Los Alamos, New Mexico

‘Wonderful podcast! I found the bit about Edward Lear very touching and sad. How biographies reveal the hidden lives of others – we often cannot guess the inner battles our fellow humans face. Now off to read the SF essay about Lear… Thank you for your podcast; it’s a real listening pleasure!’

Histories of the Soul

Christian Tyler on the works of Svetlana Alexievich

Alexievich was not interested in conventional responses, the kind of thing people say to journalists when they are shy, afraid of controversy or anxious to please. Since this was Russia, she had also to overcome the inhibitions imposed on her witnesses by a lifetime of subservience to the state, not to mention their deeply felt patriotism. She waited hours, days and weeks until they were ready to open up.

‘My favourite podcasts are the Slightly Foxed podcast . . .’

C. Butler, Utah, United States

‘My favourite podcasts are the Slightly Foxed podcast, Tea or Books?, Tea & Tattle and Hashtag Authentic’

Not Swinging, Just Dancing

Linda Leatherbarrow on the novels of Edna O’Brien

With my first wage, earned by selling toys in a department store, I bought myself a pair of black stockings, a bottle of frosted pink nail varnish, and a copy of Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls. My family believed books were ‘good for you’ and I’d gobbled up the classics: Dickens, the Brontës, Thackeray, Gaskell and Defoe, coping happily with long convoluted sentences and dutifully deploying them in my school essays. O’Brien’s brilliantly concise sentences were a revelation, her voice fresh and direct.

The Next Bob Dylan

Laurence Scott on Bert Weedon, Play in a Day

In 1950 guitars were rare in the UK and sales barely touched 5,000, but Elvis, Cliff and British rock ’n’ roll changed all that. In 1957, when Play in a Day was first published, annual UK guitar sales topped a quarter of a million and the number of people wanting to learn the guitar vastly outnumbered those capable of teaching it – a situation well understood by Bert, who wrote in his Introduction that he wanted his book to contain ‘the essential requirements of the lone student without a teacher’. It went straight to the top of the bestseller list and stayed there for several months. With sales to date totalling around 4 million, Play in a Day is the world’s biggest selling guitar tutor and it’s never been out of print.

Kinsey Makes a Difference

Frances Donnelly on Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone Alphabet novels

There are authors’ deaths, announced casually on the radio, that provoke an involuntary cry of loss. The recent death of Sue Grafton, author of the alphabetically themed Kinsey Millhone detective novels, was one such. How could you not mourn a writer with whom you’d kept company – and 25 books – for 36 years? An added sadness was that she would not now complete her task of a book for every letter of the alphabet. We had had Y Is for Yesterday (2017) and awaited, confidently, Z Is for Zero. Except that now it won’t be. ‘In our family’, said one of her daughters, ‘the alphabet now ends with Y.’

1 Dec 2018

Grave Expectations

Richard Platt on Charles Palliser, The Quincunx

The leitmotiv of The Quincunx is the interplay of Chance and Design – do we perceive Design in our lives, or merely impose it? – underscored by the recurrence of those Dickensian coincidences that Dickens’s detractors so often deride as ‘contrived’, yet which occur in real life every day, but the foundational theme is greed: how it twists, degrades and ultimately destroys everything it touches, even the innocent, and how it so clouds the minds of men that they come to see their most heinous acts through an indestructible rose-coloured glass of self-justification. Like so much of Dickens, it is a cautionary tale.

3 May 2019

In Search of Unicorns

Victoria Neumark on Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse & Linnets & Valerians

Like Traherne Goudge was an ardent Anglican. But although religion can be an oppressive presence in her adult novels, in her children’s books it manifests itself merely as a sense of embracing safety. One of her obituaries quoted Jane Austen’s famous line from Mansfield Park, ‘Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.’ Her fictional world is devoid of malice, which is why it was such balm to our childish spirits. Loyalty, kindness, affection, the wonder of nature, the smells of good, plain English cooking, a hot bath and clean clothes, the appealing personalities of pets: these are the things she celebrates. In Goudge’s children’s books, to use Louis MacNeice’s phrase, there is ‘sunlight on the garden’ and the equation always comes out.

A Modern Pied Piper

Maggie Fergusson interviews Michael Morpurgo

For generations of children, Michael Morpurgo has been a kind of Pied Piper. No one is sure exactly how many books he’s written, but there are over 150 of them, and they are said to have sold, in total, more than 35 million copies. Many have become classics – Private Peaceful, which follows a First World War soldier through the last night of his life before he is executed for cowardice; Kensuke’s Kingdom, the story of a small boy washed up on an island in the Pacific; Why the Whales Came, set in the Scilly Isles in 1914.

1 Dec 2018

Incorrigible and Irresistible

Sue Gaisford on the letters of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

On our course we were studying Rochester, as published in the Muses Library edition, and while we were certainly impressed by the rage and ingenuity of his satires, most of us had fallen slightly in love with the limpid beauty of his lyrics – especially ‘Absent from thee I languish still’ and ‘All my past life is mine no more’. It was a little mysterious that this early collection should be kept under lock and key but, as I was briskly informed, this was an unexpurgated and obscene book, definitely not suitable for impressionable undergraduates. And, actually, would I go away now and only come back with written permission from my tutor? That is, if I really needed to return.

Russian Roulette

Anne Boston on Lionel Davidson, Kolymsky Heights

I met Davidson in 1994 when Kolymsky Heights, his last and arguably his finest, was published. He was slight and unassuming, with expressive dark eyes that widened when I showed him my early proof copy and said how much I’d enjoyed it. How did he come to be familiar with the ‘howling wastes’ of Siberia, virtually closed to outsiders for decades, so chillingly evoked in the book? It was all based on factual research, he said simply; he had never set foot there.

1 Dec 2018

Keeping Ahead of the Game

Christopher Rush on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

How many know the story already? The question takes me back to my last year in primary school, when I was awarded the only literary prize I have ever won. It was for an essay ‘On the Evils of Alcohol’, set by the village Ladies’ Temperance Association – a misnomer, as abstinence, not temperance, was their aim. The prize was Stories of King Arthur and His Knights, retold for youngsters by Barbara Leonie Picard. I devoured this book and was gladdened by the far-away world it created . . .

Rock, Root and Bird

Justin Marozzi on Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain

The Living Mountain, thankfully, is a treasure that, rather like the Cairngorms it describes so wondrously, stands alone in space and time. Happening on it at any point in one’s reading life brings unexpected pleasure. It is thanks to Robert Macfarlane, who has written a typically penetrating introduction to a new edition, that the book, first published in 1977 after lying orphaned in a drawer for four decades, is now enjoying a second wind. So much so that the recent, universally glowing accolades even include the claim that this is ‘the finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain’. For Macfarlane it is ‘one of the two most remarkable twentieth-century British studies of a landscape that I know’. So we are in serious territory here.

. . . to Buckingham Palace

Hazel Wood on Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader

How Bennett must have enjoyed writing this book. The Palace setting, with its hierarchies and snobberies and constipated bureaucracy, and the shrewd no-nonsense voice of his central character, allow him to take pot-shots at all his favourite targets: official jargon, literary pretension, slippery politicians, trendy attitudes – and ultimately, perhaps, the infantilizing effects of Monarchy itself, with its suburban lifestyle hidden behind the glittering façade.

From Bloomsbury . . .

Alan Bradley on Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader

Notoriously, Woolf doesn’t write about the women on whom she herself depended for home comforts but, mostly, about those who were educated and wealthy enough to write diaries or letters. But she was very aware of the limitations society forced upon all women, both socially and physically. And how much can be gleaned from letters that will never be written, let alone preserved, in our modern, high-speed age. She was writing at a time when letters were still the main method of communication.

1 Dec 2018

A Dickens of a Riot

Daisy Hay on Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge

Last year I decided that I felt like reading Dickens at Christmas. Resisting the temptation to turn to old and reliable fireside favourites, I alighted instead on Barnaby Rudge. It seemed a choice that would fulfil two purposes: quenching my thirst for some Dickensian delights while teaching me something of an episode about which I wanted to know more. Barnaby Rudge is a historical novel, one of only two such novels Dickens wrote. It was published in 1841 and was the work he planned the longest and most carefully. Yet it is rarely read today and wasn’t very popular when it was published either. One contemporary critic apparently dismissed it as ‘Barnaby Rubbish’.

Striking Sparks

Derek Parker on editing the Poetry Review

As Muriel Spark had done before me I insisted that ‘if you’re a driver, you drive’ – that I would publish what I liked, and that the lady who wrote from the South of France complaining that the contents of the magazine were ‘sheer drivel that is an insult to the intelligence’ must simply be ignored. I clung on for five years, introducing a number of then young poets now celebrated. I can scarcely believe that I did all that work without a salary – editors of the magazine had never been paid, and I didn’t learn until years later that on my appointment the Arts Council had a grant of £500 a year for the Editor, linked to £1,000 for the General Secretary – conditional on the secretary not being Robert Armstrong. The offer was naturally refused. I was awarded a small ‘honorarium’ for the last two years – less than I could have earned by writing one sixty-minute radio feature.

1 Mar 2019

‘Really enjoyed your sixth podcast. . .’

P. Morrall, Pembrokeshire

‘Really enjoyed your sixth podcast and delighted that Gail’s recommendation is yet another of my favourites! I think she recommended A Gentleman in Moscow last month, which I was riveted by as an audio book on a long drive – just loved it! And I’ve been raving about Tim Pears’ trilogy ever since I read The Horseman a year or so ago. Three of the most beautifully written books I’ve read in ages. The trouble with Slightly Foxed is that it brings up so many titles which appeal to me that I shall now have to live until I’m about 120 just to fit in all this reading! Keep them coming, though. Such treats in store.’

Love and Loss in Brussels

Helen MacEwan on Charlotte Brontë's Villette

In 2016, in a debate organized by the Brontë Society, a panel of four writers discussed the relative merits of Jane Eyre (see SF no. 40) and Charlotte Brontë’s last novel, Villette. When an audience vote was taken, the earlier and better-known book won, but only by a small majority; the two writers defending Villette had been eloquent in its praise. As one of them said, you often come to appreciate it later in life. If Jane Eyre is Pride and Prejudice, Villette is Persuasion.

Murder Most English

Janet Walkinshaw on the Flaxborough novels of Colin Watson

Colin Watson was born in 1920. At the age of 17 he was appointed as a junior reporter on a Boston newspaper, and he spent his working life in Lincolnshire, latterly writing editorials for a chain of news-papers. He was a member of the Detection Club of Great Britain and he won the CWA Silver Dagger twice. In his photos, bespectacled, moustached, he looks like one of his own creations, a quiet, reserved Englishman, and by all accounts that is what he was. Who knew that he could see, under the bland surface of a quiet country town, the joyous anarchy of the ordinary citizen’s life? And if he couldn’t see it, he could invent it, and describe it in what must be some of the most elegant language of any crime novel.

1 Mar 2019

On the Wings of History

Karin Altenberg on Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy

Kristin Lavransdatter is a love story – but a masterly one that begins, in the first book of the trilogy, with Kristin swiftly breaking her society’s norms of patriarchy, duty and honour in order to give herself over to erotic passion. Undset viewed eroticism – a desire so profound that life would be intolerable if it were not satisfied – as part of the spiritual sphere. Kristin falls, in every way, for the handsome but clearly unsuitable Erlend Nikulaussøn, although her father has already pledged her to the thoroughly decent Simon Darre. When the wedding between Kristin and Erlend is finally allowed to happen, at the end of the first book, it is an excruciating affair, the bridal crown weighing so heavily on Kristin’s head that she can hardly sit upright at the banquet.

Man of Many Lives

Michael Holroyd on Hugh Kingsmill's Frank Harris

‘The Connoisseur of Harris’ was Hugh Kingsmill. In 1919 he published a novel called The Will to Love which he had written in a prisoner-of-war camp. Harris appears in it as Ralph Parker, a man whose friendship ‘was a craving for an audience, his love, lust in fancy dress’. Yet ‘in the ruins of his nature, crushed but not extinct, something genuine and noble struggled to express itself ’. Harris was in his seventies when he died in the summer of 1931 and Kingsmill’s biography of him was published the following year. They had known each other for twenty years and the book was one of those Lives that contain two main characters: the subject and the writer.

Just Staying

Jonathan Law on Alistair MacLeod

In forty years MacLeod produced just sixteen short stories, later collected in Island (2002), and one not very long novel, the extraordinary No Great Mischief (1999). Notoriously, he wrote at glacial speed, toiling over each sentence by hand until its shape and heft and tune were exactly so. You could read the life’s work in a weekend, but you mustn’t: the stories demand to be savoured slowly, the way they were written. A MacLeod sentence is a tactile thing, with the hard but polished feel of a pebble in the hand. Yet the prose is not ‘writerly’ in any tiresome way: ‘I like to think that I am telling a story rather than writing it,’ MacLeod once said, and his work retains a strong sense of the speaking or even singing voice – of folk tales or Gaelic balladry.

An Unusual Lexicographer

Ann Kennedy Smith on Robert Burchfield, The Spoken Word: A BBC Guide

The Spoken Word, published in 1981, was produced in response to a wave of complaints to the British Broadcasting Corporation about falling standards in spoken English. A new era of broadcasting had begun in the 1970s, as the BBC changed from being the Reithian home of ‘received pronunciation’ to something broader, permitting more regional accents and informal language. Many people felt that the move towards linguistic diversity had gone too far, resulting in what the critic Anne Karpf so eloquently described in 1980 as ‘English as she is murdered on radio’.

1 Mar 2019

Springtime Reflections

Chris Saunders on Edward Thomas, In Pursuit of Spring

You can almost smell the sylvan air, and this is one of Thomas’s attractions. Born in the suburbs, his love of nature drove his devout wish to escape the noise and chaos of London. Like him, I have moved to the sticks and I feel he is speaking for me when he writes: Many days in London have no weather. We are aware only that it is hot or cold, dry or wet; that we are in or out of doors; that we are at ease or not. But Thomas’s writing is more than pastoral escapism. He often turns his retreat to the country into an assessment of himself and this is where In Pursuit of Spring becomes spooky, funny and also strangely wise…

A Perfect Electrometer

Roger Hudson on the journals of Dorothy Wordsworth

My Cambridge tutor was bubbling over with pleasure one morning in 1962 after reading Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal, the one she kept between 1800 and 1803 when living with her poet brother William at Dove Cottage in the Lake District. What he had been particularly taken with was something she wrote on 14 May 1802 when the two had been walking in the woods alongside Grasmere: ‘William teased himself with seeking an epithet for the Cuckow.’ I never forgot this slightly comical picture of the creative process, but it was almost thirty years before I came to read her journal myself when doing a book on Coleridge among the lakes and mountains.

‘I discovered your world of Slightly Foxed . . .’

H. Desai, Bradford

‘I discovered your world of Slightly Foxed at the start of my day today through an Instagram advert about your podcast. I instantly downloaded all six episodes and devoured the first two on my way to work this morning. It was incredibly charming, warm and comforting. I’ve never heard of a bookish podcast quite like this and I was utterly drawn in by the language and the feeling that I too, was sat around the kitchen table surrounded by tombs of musty books. Anyway, I just wanted to say that for an Asian Muslim girl in the Northern town of Bradford, it’s incredible to gain such a wondrous insight into a world I only dream to work in. So thank you! (I’m going to purchase your latest issue so I can properly delve myself in the Slightly Foxed world.)’

‘Congratulations, I think the podcast is fantastic . . .’

B. Rutter, Warwick

‘Congratulations, I think the podcast is fantastic. I can’t wait for the next one. Well done to all at Slightly Foxed.’

From the Slightly Foxed bookshelves || John Moore, Brensham Village

Easter greetings from Hoxton Square where the office foxes are feeling slightly guilty but mostly delighted at the prospect of having four days off, with little to do but lounge around and read, possibly with a glass of something cold in hand if the weather forecast for England is to be believed.

Meantime we’ll leave you to enjoy this suitably seasonal extract from John Moore’s Brensham Village, introduced by Sue Gee . . .

‘I have longed to be a member of Slightly Foxed . . .’

N. Veitch, Ontario, Canada

‘I have longed to be a member of Slightly Foxed but have always been held back by the poor exchange rate of the Canadian Dollar. But, having listened to the podcast episodes repeatedly whenever I am in need of a kitchen table book talk (probably too many times to admit, though I have decided to stop when I know them off by heart) I felt I needed to take the plunge. Thank you again.’

‘Loving the podcasts . . .’

W. Sweeney, London

‘Loving the podcasts. Spent evening alone in kitchen, drinking wine and catching up with them. Bliss.’

‘I could listen to your podcasts all day . . .’

P. Kent, Richmond, Surrey

‘I could listen to your podcasts all day. They are soothing and stimulating at the same time.’

‘I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the podcast . . .’

N. Davies, Bedfordshire

‘I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the podcast – full of useful recommendations and links. Beautifully produced – music, readings and literary gossip. I am going to revisit podcasts 1 to 4 now to make sure I have not missed anything. Please continue to make them as well as the quarterlies.’

‘With a good podcast . . .’

M. Gerard, Georgia, United States

‘I listen to so many Podcasts but these I can’t live without: Futility Closet, the Slightly Foxed podcast, Astonishing Legends and Judge John Hodgman. With a good podcast, you begin to feel you really know the hosts. They are friends you have over for dinner and play board games with.’

‘Listening to the first two podcasts saved my sanity . . .’

Julie, United States

‘Listening to the first two podcasts saved my sanity on a very long car trip from Virginia to Texas here in the states. The podcasts made me eagerly anticipate the long winter evenings in the new year with newly discovered books. Wonderful podcasts and I can’t wait to hear more.’

‘I have enjoyed the podcast, episode 2 . . .’

M. Nash, Palmerston, New Zealand

‘I have enjoyed the podcast, episode 2. It was especially interesting to hear from Frances Wood about the missionary accounts of adventures in China in the last century. After listening to the former head of the Chinese collection at the British Library, I might horrify my family by collecting some of these forgotten stories of lives lived on the edge, and adding them to my already extensive book collection.’

‘Thanks for the podcast . . .’

M. Nash, Palmerston, New Zealand

‘Thanks for the podcast. I have even managed to download it (actually as easy as falling off a log). With regard to Georgette Heyer, I find her regency novels full of wit and humour, which when I read them as teenager I missed. Best wishes for future podcasts.’

‘I loved your podcast . . .’

J. Beck, Victoria, Australia

‘I loved your podcast! I am not a listener, much more a reader, but how could I resist. Wonderful listening . . . I look forward to more. Very best wishes & congratulations.’

‘Well done, SF. This is just lovely . . .’

J. McNeil, South Lanarkshire

‘Well done, SF. This is just lovely. Thank you. I feel like I’m sat there with you.’

‘I have just listened to your first podcast . . .’

A. Cooper, Te Kauwhata, New Zealand

‘I have just listened to your first podcast and was delighted to hear that you re-read old favourites. The piece on Anne Fadiman sent me straight to Ex Libris which I re-read (not for the first time!) and I’m happy to say I knew exactly where to find it! Looking forward to December’s podcast.’

‘It was delightful to listen to the lively voices . . .’

M. Ewing, Minnesota, United States

‘Thank you. It was delightful to listen to the lively voices (dogs included) responsible for the wonderful magazine that is Slightly Foxed. It brings me a bit closer to a sense of acquaintance with you all. I know I will enjoy future podcasts. As a reader from the North American Midwest, I was pleased to head Jane Smiley mentioned. Perhaps Gail would also enjoy exploring some of our fine, but lesser-known authors. I would recommend Jon Hassler’s Staggerford or Grand Opening. Small town rather than rural, but still distinctly midwestern. All the best from Minnesota.’

‘I have just listened to your first podcast . . .’

J. Chapell, Ontario, Canada

‘Just wanted to say that I have just listened to your first podcast and loved it! Looking forward to December’s edition. Well done!’

‘I don’t often listen to podcasts . . .’

C. Adams, Essex

‘I don’t often listen to podcasts, as they eat into reading time. However, I had a pile of ironing so thought I would give yours a try and I loved it. I even found myself joining in the conversation occasionally! And being able to put voices to names was also a pleasure. The ironing pile is growing again so please hurry up with the next one!’

‘I just loved this podcast . . .’

D. Nardin, Georgia, United States

‘I just loved this podcast! [episode 2] Maybe as much as the first one. Listened to both while walking my dog and picturing you three at the kitchen table.’

‘Congratulations on the podcast . . .’

L. Baines, Victoria, Australia

‘Congratulations on the podcast. I’ve just listened to the first episode on the way home from work & I’ve already ordered two of the books mentioned (Thousand Acres & Lees-Milne Diaries). I love Riddle of the Sands (the audio book read by Anton Lesser is terrific) & I have Ex Libris on the shelves so it’s time for a reread.’

‘ADORING your début podcast . . .’

J. Marozzi, London

‘ADORING your début podcast in an overheated hotel room in Tunis. Completely wonderful and ridiculously good for morale before I head to beleaguered Tripoli. Jim is a Norfolk friend. Hurrah for you all and many salaams.’

‘Absolutely loving the podcasts . . .’

G. Brown, Scotland

‘Absolutely loving the podcasts. More, more, please!’

‘I have just listened to your podcast . . .’

J. Southworth, Cornwall

‘I have just listened to your podcast! Well done, it’s wonderful.’

‘Thank you so much for podcast episode 3 . . .’

W. Edmond, Leicestershire

‘Thank you so much for podcast episode 3 – your podcasts gather strength with each edition. Love hearing your voices, the sound effects too, and all the booksy news. A great treat and perfect to listen to while doing the physio’s exercises for a bad back – positively curative!’

‘I don’t listen to many podcasts but . . .’

J. Gregson, Quebec, Canada

‘Hi Ladies, I don’t listen to many podcasts but really enjoyed Stet and the books discussed as well as editing of which I do some in a slightly amateurish way. I wonder if you are considering publishing Diana Athill’s Stet – I’d certainly buy it! Thank you for your lovely literary ideas.’

‘Like sitting down with old book-reading friends . . .’

C. Stelzer, Colorado, United States

‘Like sitting down with old book-reading friends. What could be better?’

‘Just a few lines to say how much I enjoyed . . .’

N. Ridley, Essex

‘Just a few lines to say how much I enjoyed the first SF podcast. It immediately reminded me of a Summer’s day about five years ago when I arrived unannounced at your door in Hoxton Square, Gail answered and kindly invited me upstairs to see where it all happens. Hazel wasn’t present that day but I was introduced to other members of staff. I don’t expect any of you there at the time would remember this occasion but as an ex-compositor, once actively engaged in helping to produce the printed word, first by hand setting in the old hot-metal days and then into the era of electronic typesetting. So when I listened to the podcast I pictured you all there talking to me, reviving a precious memory. The Winter edition will complete my ninth year as a subscriber to your, dare I say our, beautifully produced publication and look forward to future podcasts that I am sure will be as popular as the magazine.’

‘Apart from being inspiring it is also . . .’

J. Murray, London

‘I have just listened to your first podcast. It is truly inspiring and makes the listener feel that he/she is sitting round the kitchen table with you. Apart from being inspiring it is also so friendly that one feels that one is being welcomed into the Slightly Foxed family (including the three dogs who performed well in the recording). It also makes it clear that reading can be a real pleasure with the right guidance. If the selling of JM brought about the founding of Slightly Foxed then I made an excellent decision!’

‘To use the common parlance – lush! . . .’

A. Scaramanga, Wiltshire

‘To use the common parlance – lush! I am already devoted.’

‘May I thank the members of staff, and the dogs . . .’

E. Weinberger, Cambridgeshire

‘May I thank the members of staff, and the dogs who support the members of staff, for publishing Slightly Foxed, and for offering a podcast. I know that putting a podcast together is complex, and consumes much time.’

‘I’ve just listened to your first podcast . . . ’

A. Hypher, Uithoorn, Netherlands

‘I’ve just listened to your first podcast and found it very enjoyable and highly informative. Congratulations on hitting upon such a well-produced and wonderful idea! I shall certainly try and find time in my busy teaching schedule to listen regularly to the monthly episodes, here in the Netherlands.’

‘Mention of your second podcast episode has reminded me . . .’

S. Stock, Essex

‘Mention of your second podcast episode has reminded me that I haven’t yet been in touch to say how very much I enjoyed the first. It was so nice to feel that I was seated at the kitchen table, listening to book talk. It inspired me to pull the first Fox down from the shelf, and Ex Libris, too. As someone who tries to avoid technology out of work I was glad that I only needed to click on the website to listen and didn’t need to download and app or register with anything.’

‘This is just to say how much I enjoy the SF podcasts . . .’

U. Buchan, Northamptonshire

‘This is just to say how much I enjoy the SF podcasts. Thank you so much for adding it to my long list of quiet pleasures.’

‘Oh joy, now you are sitting around my kitchen table as well . . .’

L. Tones, County Durham

‘Oh joy, now you are sitting around my kitchen table as well! A masterly development for Slightly Foxed and one that adds another layer of pleasure to your inspirational idea and beautifully produced journals.’

‘I’m a big podcast fan . . .’

D. Mitchell, NSW, Australia

‘Thank you, I got so excited to find you had a podcast. I’m a big podcast fan and often listen while I’m working from my studio in NSW. It’s wonderful to hear the voices behind Slightly Foxed and I loved hearing the dogs in the background too.’

‘Love listening to your first two podcasts . . .’

P. Oley, Tyne & Wear

‘Love listening to your first two podcasts. So lovely to meet you all and I look forward very much to your future podcasts. Thank you.’

‘Well, that was terrific! So interesting . . .’

L. Wicksteed, Surrey

‘Well, that was terrific! So interesting to hear how you work, to get some in-depth chat on a couple of topics and lots of alluring snippets on many others. The podcast web page is beautifully presented as well.’

‘Thoroughly enjoyed your podcast thus far . . .’

K. Stephenson, Suffolk

‘Thoroughly enjoyed your podcast thus far – love the general chat about books and recommendations but gleaned so much more than I expected as the contributors expanded beyond the books to Chinese paper production, writers’ lives, how books affect individuals personally. Have subscribed via Spotify and can’t wait for the 3rd episode. Thank you.’

‘Started listening to your podcast . . .’

D. Drewitt, East Sussex

‘Started listening to your podcast . . . it was great to hear where people listen. I have taken on my son’s rabbit (flat changes) . . . the rabbit seems permanent now! Giving the rabbit a run out /cleaning can be boring. So now I have discovered the podcast I can run round the yard with the rabbit with you in my ear!’

‘I loved listening to this. Interesting reflections on editing . . .’

G. Somerville-Arjat, Edinburgh

‘I loved listening to this. Interesting reflections on editing. Remarkable revelations about Beatrix Potter noir. Who had thought of it before? And some recommendations of books to read. Gerontius was quite new to me.’

‘I wanted to relay to you . . .’

M. Collins, London

‘I wanted to relay to you, and to the rest of the team, how much I enjoyed the recent episode (3) of the SF podcast. As a ‘new’ writer having recently gone through the experience of a book being edited, getting to hear from the editor’s perspective has been so helpful. It’s a really interesting subject and the episode handled it wonderfully.’

‘I’m a newish subscriber and have just spent a very happy 30 minutes . . .’

M. Moody, London

‘I’m a newish subscriber and have just spent a very happy 30 minutes in the company of Gail, Hazel and Steph around their kitchen table listening to how Slightly Foxed started. I’m not usually a podcast person but this is so different and so delightful it’s like being an invisible guest in someone else’s home. It’s so much more fun than reading book reviews onscreen and fascinating to hear what each of you is currently reading. I shall become an avid and regular listener to the podcasts and I’m looking forward to the next one already.’

Episode 6: Well-Written Lives

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

Gail, Hazel, Jennie and host Philippa are joined at the table by eminent biographer Adam Sisman to discuss the delicate business of delving into the lives of others – warts and all or, sometimes, all warts no all. The actor Nigel Anthony lends his voice to Edward Lear’s surreal verbal contortions, unearthing the deep sorrow that hid beneath the nonsense.

‘I do so love the podcasts! I like to listen in bed . . .’

B. Carriger, Missouri, United States

‘I do so love the podcasts! I like to listen in bed after reading a little Slightly Foxed, and before turning off the light. You ladies are doing such a wonderful job. I will continue to enjoy!’

Episode 4: Viewing Is Essential

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

Gail, Hazel and Jennie talk to the artist and illustrator (and master of pastiche) David Eccles about the craft of marrying image and text. The actress Petra Markham takes to the airwaves with Posy Simmonds, and the printmaker Angie Lewin recalls her experience of being commissioned for a Slightly Foxed cover.

Episode 5: Revival

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

Gail, Hazel, Anna and Donna Coonan of Virago Modern Classics gather round the table to talk about giving new life to forgotten voices, and Helen Bourne heads for the Pyramids with a young Priscilla Napier.

Pure Arcadia

Humphrey and Solveig Stone on M. F. K. Fisher

I don’t really consider M. F. a cookery writer per se. She is a sort of food alchemist and is positively sensual about the pleasure of food. ‘I just wish my fellow countrymen were more relaxed. They have been conditioned to believe there is something basically evil about physical and moral sensuality.’ Her books are full of recipes, not all of them about food.

1 Mar 2007

Episode 3: Stet

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

Gail, Hazel and Anna discuss the art of editing with author and creative writing teacher Sue Gee, and Helen Bourne delves into the dark side of Beatrix Potter.

From the Slightly Foxed bookshelves || Jan Morris, Conundrum

How James Morris finally became Jan is an extraordinary story, and her memoir Conundrum is a gripping and thought-provoking read which casts fascinating light on the fevered debates of today. Read on for an extract from Chapter 15 where we join James at his beloved home Trefan in Wales where he spends one last summer living as a man before heading for Casablanca to meet the magician . . .

‘Just to let you know that I tuned in to my first Slightly Foxed Podcast this afternoon . . .’

S. Hersey, Merseyside

‘Just to let you know that I tuned in to my first Slightly Foxed Podcast this afternoon and what a delight it was to hear the voices and reflect on SF’s beginnings. All I can say is “Well done” for providing a homely and approachable organisation. Your conversation about children’s books came home; I regularly re-read old copies by Alan Garner and Rosemary Sutcliffe. I also have many faded and rather worn books, each of which gives me pure joy when I handle them. Having also listened to the quote regarding books, bookcases and collecting, I thought I’d show some of mine containing, amongst the seeming mayhem, my first remembered book that my father bought me, a Ladybird Julius Caesar. Max the cat likes to sit near them all. Thank you again.’

With Bold Knife and Fork

Jane Lunzer Gifford on M. F. K. Fisher

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher did write exquisitely. She also wrote a vast amount, and one might fear indigestion on so hefty a diet of opinion, scathing contempt and passion for the many and varied food experiences of her long and pretty colourful life. Still, I have yet to tire of either her prose or her subject.

Episode 2: The Oldest Paper in the World

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

Gail, Hazel and Jennie talk to Frances Wood, librarian, sinologue and former head of the Chinese Collection at the British Library; Andrew Hawkins recounts the story of the oldest paper in the world; and we find out which books our readers are hoping for this Christmas.

‘I’ve just listened to the third of your excellent series of podcasts . . .’

A. Courcut, Buckinghamshire

‘I’ve just listened to the third of your excellent series of podcasts and thought I would just send this email to congratulate you on its production. I’ve enjoyed each episode but found episode 3 particularly interesting. As a boy, I wasn’t encouraged to read Beatrix Potter and have so far read only the recently published Tale of Kitty in Boots: Tod and Brock sound very much like villains of the old school and bring to mind a number of people I’ve represented in court over the years. The insight into the editing process was fascinating too.’

‘Hello Foxes, I’ve just listened to your latest podcast . . .’

Kate Harris of Harris & Harris Books

‘Hello Foxes, I’ve just listened to your latest podcast in the bookshop here (Oh, the joys of a quiet January Tuesday where even the bell on the door stays mute long enough to hear (most of) the podcast). Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. That’s all. Very best wishes.’

‘I just wanted to say how very much I’m enjoying your podcast . . .’

H. Waugh, NSW, Australia

‘I just wanted to say how very much I’m enjoying your podcast. What a wonderful idea and so interesting to hear how SF began, too. I’m sure many others have said this, but it really is like sitting around a big table with a group of friends having a chat.’

‘The relatively new podcast by Slightly Foxed is such a joy . . .’

N. Kristensen, Aarhus, Denmark

‘The relatively new podcast by Slightly Foxed is such a joy to listen to – the absolute cosiest podcast out there, I’m sure!’

‘I’m really enjoying the podcasts . . .’

G. Cotter, Lancashire

‘I’m really enjoying the podcasts. An oasis of civilized peace in a world that has gone raving mad.’

Episode 1: Kindred Spirits

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

In the first episode of The Slightly Foxed Podcast, Gail, Hazel, Steph and SF director Jim Ring meet round the kitchen table at No. 53 to remember how it all began and Veronika Hyks gives voice to Liz Robinson’s article on Anne Fadiman’s well-loved Ex Libris.

Reading off the Beaten Track (Trailer)

The Slightly Foxed Podcast

For 14 years now, the team at Slightly Foxed has been hunting down forgotten books and weaving them into a quarterly magazine. It’s become a favourite for thousands of readers worldwide, more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine. And now, there’s something new: The Slightly Foxed Podcast for adventurous readers.

‘I have rediscovered you! Years ago I was devouring slightly dog-eared Slightly Foxed . . .’

C. Brissenden, United States

‘I have rediscovered you! Years ago I was devouring slightly dog-eared Slightly Foxed volumes passed on by a dear friend who subscribed. I recently had a wonderful walk and talk my brother, briefly home from abroad, and we connected over books and learned of our mutual adoration of SF. And he told me of your podcast! I am just so enjoying it. So interesting, relaxing, fun, and well-produced. Currently halfway through episode two, and harbouring delicious anticipation for Ep 3. I really like the piano intro music, too. Just perfect. Well done, and thank you!’ C. Brissenden, US

A Personal Landscape

Andy Merrills on Alfred Wainwright

Every reader of Wainwright will have his or her favourite passages: if nothing else the sequence is a monument to the self-effacing whimsy of a modest man. Enthusiasts point to the dedications of the different volumes, for example – The Eastern Fells ‘to the men of the Ordnance Survey’, The Southern Fells ‘to the sheep of Lakeland’, The North Western Fells ‘to those unlovely twins, my right leg and my left leg. Staunch supporters which have carried me about for over half a century, endured without complaint. And never once let me down.’ Again and again, the lovingly pastoral tone is enlivened by a wry (and occasionally macabre) humour.

The Sunday Times Podcast of the Week

The Sunday Times

‘If you like books, you will love this podcast.’

An Unsettling Read

Ruth Symes on E. M. Forster, A Passage to India

As the long flight plugged on through the night, Forster’s powerful descriptions of the scenery and climate of India beckoned me. I longed to feel the way the Asian heat ‘leapt forward’ hour by hour, to see the ‘angry orange’ sun that ‘had power without beauty,’ and to smell the toddy palms and neem trees and sweet ‘green-blossomed champak’. I wanted to feel beneath my feet what Forster describes as ‘something hostile in the soil’ and see the sky at night when ‘the stars hang like lamps from the immense vault’.

1 Mar 2007

All Washed Up

Christopher Robbins on George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London

The book was the first full-length work by George Orwell to be published. A tale of poverty in two cities, it is divided into two parts: in the first the author becomes a dishwasher in Paris; in the second he lives the life of a tramp in London. The book’s obvious appeal for me was that it seemed to be written by a soul mate, a letter from one unpublished writer and dishwasher to another. It enabled me to romanticize my deadly dull occupation, not least by allowing me to think of myself not as a dishwasher but as a plongeur.

‘I have only just managed to listen to episode 4 of the podcast . . .’

S. Denholm, Northumberland

‘I have only just managed to listen to episode 4 of the podcast as I moved house 3 weeks ago. I have been working out where to put my books, which involves difficult decisions. All my working life was spent with books (libraries, retail and library supply) so you might say they are an obsession. Thank you for your journal and the podcasts, both of which I love.’

‘I have fallen in love with your podcast . . . ’

K. Whittacre, New York, United States

‘I have fallen in love with your podcast and many of the books that you recommend. I need to stop listening however because my list of what I’d like to read only grows and grows! Thank you for being a treasure!’

‘The Slightly Foxed podcast is a delight! . . .’

S. Graham, Devon

‘The Slightly Foxed podcast is a delight! I challenge anyone to not be inspired to pick up a book after listening to it.’

‘I am looking forward to the next podcast . . .’

H. Mills, Surrey

‘I am looking forward to the next podcast, they are not only interesting in their own right but it makes me feel I am actually in Hoxton . . . Keep ‘poding’.’

‘Thank you very much indeed for the fifth Slightly Foxed podcast . . . ’

W. Edmond, Leicestershire

‘Thank you very much indeed for the fifth Slightly Foxed podcast which I have enjoyed instead of doing some urgent admin . . . much more fun! I always listen to it several times, and seem to hear more each time.’

‘The podcasts are wonderful and really interesting . . .’

P. Francis, Cornwall

‘The podcasts are wonderful and really interesting, including aspects about the publishing business. Only criticism of the latest one is that I missed the dogs barking in the background!’

In the Eye of the Storm

Posy Fallowfield on Richard Hughes, In Hazard

In Hazard is an extraordinary read. It resembles The Human Predicament in mixing fiction with fact, but here the ‘fact’ is not a devastating political movement which took years to grow, but a devastating meteorological event which took place within a week. In November 1932 the steamship Phemius was sucked into a Caribbean hurricane and tested to the limits, yet somehow she and all her crew survived. The owner of the shipping line to which Phemius belonged approached Hughes and suggested he record the dramatic story. Hughes agreed to describe the storm and its effects on the ship as accurately as he could, with the proviso that he would invent a fictitious captain and crew . . .

1 Mar 2019

‘I just wanted to drop you a note to thank you . . . ’

D. Shannon, Ohio, United States

‘I just wanted to drop you a note to thank you for the prompt shipment of the lovely set of Ronald Welch books. They’re simply gorgeous, and they make me want to ditch my university teaching for a few weeks to dive into them all. And thank you for all that you continue to do. The podcast is a delight to listen to on the way to and from campus, and all of you gave me and my husband a lovely afternoon of tea and conversation at Hoxton Square in the summer of 2017.’

‘I’ve just listened to episode 3 and thoroughly enjoyed it . . .’

C. Fisher, Madrid, Spain

‘I’ve just listened to episode 3 and thoroughly enjoyed it. All the contributors wear their considerable learning very lightly which adds to both the listening pleasure and also the learning process of the listener! I was delighted to hear that Slightly Foxed will be republishing Rosemary Sutcliff’s Roman novels. I think I’ve read them all but will make a point of buying what will undoubtedly be wonderful new editions.’

‘Episode 4 of your podcast has turned me into an addict . . . ’

M. Etherington-Smith, London

‘Episode 4 of your podcast has turned me into an addict; very, very interesting and you all sound so nice – a counter-blast against the monstrous regiment of politicians we endure every day . . . Very best to you all and of course to the dogs.’

‘I have just finished listening to the most recent podcast . . .’

G. Colgan, County Meath, Ireland

‘I have just finished listening to the most recent podcast and my only disappointment is that it is not three times as long. It is an absolute pleasure and I look forward to the 15th of every month now.’

‘I have listened to the latest edition of the podcast while . . .’

L. Cameron, Cumbria

‘Just thought you would like to know that I have listened to the latest edition of the podcast while 6 children are having a nerf gun battle over the entire area of my house. Thank you for giving me a glance into a civilised, bullet-free world for half an hour. Back into the fray now with my head full of pyramids and books to order… Although better check under my sofa for hidden eggs first. Thanks again for such sage advice.’

‘Just to say thank you for such a warm welcome . . . ’

C. Thomas, Bedfordshire

‘Just to say thank you for such a warm welcome to the Slightly Foxed family. Love the quarterly. Was a bit worried would have to eke it out but there are the wonderful podcasts and back issues to dip into too. A peaceful, cosy treat from the stresses of the world with lots of ideas for good books. Congratulations all.’

Before the Sun Set

Penelope Lively on Priscilla Napier, A Late Beginner

This wonderful recreation of a time and a climate of mind – a hundred years ago, one realizes, startled – is not just an evocation of place but also of the child’s eye view. A Late Beginner ranks quite simply with the greatest accounts of how it is to be a child, to see with that strange, skewed, uncontaminated vision.

‘I received the mailing with my new membership card, and the lovely . . . ’

A. Greer, Virginia, United States

‘I received the mailing with my new membership card, and the lovely bookplate reproductions and bookmark. Many thanks for taking the trouble to do that. Slightly Foxed customer service is outstanding! I feel I have a relationship with you, although we are an ocean away and have not met in person.’

‘I must tell you that I was very late for work today having discovered at breakfast time . . . ’

S. Bailey, Oxford

‘I must tell you that I was very late for work today having discovered at breakfast time that I didn’t finish the latest issue of Slightly Foxed after all. Eventually I looked up at the clock and it was already gone nine. Fortunately, I work flexible hours. Thank you for such a wonderful, beguiling periodical.’

‘I wish I were a millionaire . . . ’

T. Love-Taylor, London

‘I wish I were a millionaire – I would buy subscriptions for all my friends! One of the great delights of Slightly Foxed is the high production values you exert-paper, printing, magnificent illustrations. It always gives me a thrill of pleasure when each issue arrives-such a beautiful object in a world of plastic and IT!’

‘The quarterly itself is a joy and always sends me scurrying to my bookshelves . . . ’

B. Berkeley-Hill, Kent

‘The quarterly itself is a joy and always sends me scurrying to my bookshelves to see if I just might have a copy of a long-forgotten book. . . ’

3 Apr 2019

‘I have received my Spring issue and read it from cover to cover . . . ’

T. Patton, Co. Antrim

‘I have received my Spring issue and read it from cover to cover in one sitting! Pure unadulterated pleasure. From that I moved on to one of my purchases Hand-Grenade Practice in Peking, finishing it in a day! What an amazing insight into a foreign student’s life in China in 1975. The book had just the right balance of detail and humour. Such an easy but enriching read. I have moved on to Giving up the Ghost and am thoroughly absorbed in it.’

‘I wanted cheering up so I opened A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book . . .’

H. Mills, Surrey

‘I wanted cheering up so I opened A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book and you could have heard my chuckles from Weybridge to London. I really think it is a book that everyone ought to have with them, by them, anywhere, any place; a good laugh is what we all need.’

2 Oct 2018

‘I have been hugely impressed with you and all your enterprises . . . ’

S. Moody

‘I have been hugely impressed with you and all your enterprises ever since I first came across you many years ago. I am even more impressed to receive this morning beautifully bound copies of The Little Grey Men and Down the Bright Stream, which I ordered only a few days ago. My godmother gave me the first on my eleventh birthday and now I give these two to my grand-daughter, hoping she will love them as much as I did. The illustrations are nostalgically perfect.’

‘Not just one of the finest publications for book lovers . . . ’

C. Taylor, The Netherlands

‘Not just one of the finest publications for book lovers I’ve ever come across, Slightly Foxed doubles down with friendly people answering the phone and outstanding service. So happy to have renewed my subscription for another two years today!’

8 Feb 2019

‘I love good reading and a fine use of language . . . ’

E. Tennessen, New Mexico, United States

‘I love good reading and a fine use of language, so when I discovered SF, I was immediately enchanted and ordered a sample issue. I’ve read half of issue 60 and I’m a convert. So pleased to announce that I’ve ordered a subscription and a copy of Drawn from Memory and Drawn from Life. Thank you for your excellent work!’

‘I have just finished A House in Flanders by Michael Jenkins . . . ’

S. Hersey, Merseyside

‘I have just finished A House in Flanders by Michael Jenkins. I bought it from you a couple of weeks ago and have cherished every single page from the start. It is a charming, evocative and wistful narrative, forming such a well of sympathy with the characters that I was quite unnerved at the end with Tante Yvonne’s demise. Books like this create strong and memorable images in mind and memory, evoking yearnings and emotions. It’s been a wonderful few days sinking into this beautiful little book and being cosseted with each turn of the page. This the third SFP book I own. In themselves, they are a perfect shape and size. Design and layout are excellent, illustrations delightful. It’s a joy simply to look at them with their neat little format and eye-soothing cream colour.’

‘I am rarely moved to write about such matters. But . . . ’

S. Lamport, London

‘I am rarely moved to write about such matters. But as a first-year subscriber to Slightly Foxed I have come to appreciate greatly the quarterly magazine, which reveals pleasures I would almost certainly have missed otherwise. The winter issue introduced me to two delights: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Lionel Davidson’s Kolymsky Heights, both of which I have since enjoyed immensely. So thank you for your introduction to them. They have each, in their different ways, been revelatory.’

‘I did so enjoy the podcast . . . ’

P. Morrall, Devon

‘I did so enjoy the last podcast and I absolutely loved A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles which was recommended by one of you, can’t now remember which! I had it as a talking book on a long drive recently and was completely absorbed, couldn’t stop driving, which must be the moving version of “couldn’t put it down”!’

The Hunt for Hitler

Adam Sisman on Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hilter

I cannot now remember when I first read Hugh Trevor-Roper’s The Last Days of Hitler (1947). My memory is confused by the fact that I knew the author in old age and was to become his biographer; Trevor-Roper himself told me about the extraordinary circumstances in which he had come to write the book. In September 1945 he had been awaiting discharge from the army so that he could resume his pre-war role as an Oxford don, when he was asked to undertake an urgent investigation into the fate of the Führer.

The Paris Effect

Laura Freeman on Nancy Mitford’s Parisian novels

Brimming. That was how I spent my first weeks in Paris. Brimming with tears at the smallest setback. For Nancy Mitford’s Northey in Don’t Tell Alfred, dispatched to Paris to be secretary to Fanny Wincham, the new Madame l’Ambassadrice at the British Embassy, it is the ‘cruel food’ of France that sets her off. Beef consommé. Brimming. Lobster. Brimming. Foie gras. Brimming. ‘A Frenchman on board told me what they do to sweet geese for pâté de foie gras,’ says Northey at dinner on her first night at the Ambassador’s Residence. ‘Very wrong and stupid of him,’ says Fanny.

Bookshop of the Quarter: Spring 2019

This independent bookshop is settled between the river and Richmond Green in leafy Richmond-Upon-Thames. The shop appears small from the outside but, within its doors, the bookshelves stretch far and are full of interesting reading. We spoke to bookseller Helena Caletta about life in the bookshop on this bend of the river Thames.

New this Spring from Slightly Foxed

We’re delighted to report that the Spring issue of Slightly Foxed (No. 61) has left the printing press at Smith Settle. It ranges far and wide in the usual eclectic manner, and we do hope it will provide plenty of recommendations for reading off the beaten track. With it, as usual, you’ll find a copy of our latest Readers’ Catalogue, detailing new books, our backlist, books featured in the latest issue of the quarterly, recommended reading and other offers and bundles . . .

‘Wonderful writing and great conversation . . .’

I. Birch, Devon

‘I’m a new subscriber and would like to say how much I enjoy both the quarterly and the podcast. Wonderful writing and great conversation – am so glad to have found you! With good wishes and appreciation for all you do’

Commons People

Rowena Macdonald on Philip Hensher, Kitchen Venom

When I first started working at the House of Commons, back in 2001, Philip Hensher was still discussed in dark tones by my colleagues. He was the only employee in living memory to have been sacked. Five years before, he had written Kitchen Venom, a novel set in the Clerks’ Department where we worked, about John, a secretly gay, hunchbacked senior clerk who spends his workday afternoons sneaking off to see a beautiful Italian rent boy in Earls Court.

‘Tombs, dear. Where’s your other sock?’

Extract from A Late Beginner, Priscilla Napier

No one told me that the pyramids had been one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but they were certainly the primal wonder of mine. From early on they exercised an oddly persistent fascination.They could not, it seemed, be taken for granted, like hills and trees and houses. Approached along the pyramid road they got larger and larger and larger until they filled up one half of the sky. It took a long while to ride lurchingly round the Great Pyramid on a camel, and from no angle could their stupendousness be made a thing of nought. They were made of square yellow blocks, exactly like sugar lumps, but higher than I was.

Slightly Foxed Issue 61: From the Editors

Gail Pirkis & Hazel Wood

As many of you will already have gathered, if only from the discreet note on the contents page of the winter issue, this spring we’ve embarked on a new project, the Slightly Foxed podcast. Your reaction to this may possibly…

Sound Nonsense

Christopher Robbins on James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

The words rolled out, natural and clear, and I listened with new ears and understanding. Enlightenment had finally come. Passages spoken aloud in an Irish accent, by someone who loved the prose enough to commit long passages to memory, released the book’s power. Its beauty had been unlocked not by a literary intellectual, but by a half-tight man in a cheap suit standing at the bar of a Dublin pub. Finnegans Wake was revealed as a work of sound rather than sense, a form of high falutin, Gaelic, literary rap. Ireland talking in her sleep. It was as if Brian had taken me by the elbow, and guided me into this particular tavern to receive a final, Celtic benediction.

A Leap into the Light

Derek Johns on Jan Morris, Conundrum

I first met Jan Morris in the offices of the publisher Random House in New York in the early 1980s. I was a junior editor there, and was invited to meet someone I considered to be one of the most intriguing writers I had read. This was nothing more than a handshake and an acknowledgement of our shared Britishness in New York. But I was immediately struck by Jan’s warmth and affability, qualities that are key to her genius for talking to people and drawing stories from them. (For while Jan is less of an extrovert in person than in her writings, and indeed in some ways is quite reserved, she nonetheless possesses a remarkable ability, surely learned in the world of journalism, to nose out a story.)

Underwear Was Important

Hazel Wood on Posy Simmonds

Posy’s dialogue is as good as her draughtsmanship, and she has a talent for names (an area in which so many writers fall down) which is as good as that of Evelyn Waugh or Anthony Powell. What enchants and convinces in all her work is the brilliantly observed detail. If Posy draws a French coffee pot it is a completely authentic French coffee pot. The appearance of her characters – toddlers, sulky teenagers, pushy mothers, angst-ridden authors, pretentious publishing types – is always spot on. This kind of texture, she says, is the equivalent of verbal description in a novel . . .

The Temptation of Mrs Harris

Maggie Fergusson on Paul Gallico, Flowers for Mrs Harris

It was astonishing to me that a grown-up could cry, and more than astonishing that anyone should cry for joy. The memory came back to me a few weeks ago, as I reread, with my 9-year-old daughter, Paul Gallico’s Flowers for Mrs Harris. For Gallico, most fondly remembered as the author of The Snow Goose, was a master of the bittersweet, of the mysterious kinship between suffering and joy. He knew how to fold together humour and poignant detail in just the right proportions to prevent his prose from curdling into mawkishness and sentimentality.

1 Dec 2008

Unsung Heroes

Alastair Glegg on learning to read at prep school

The library at Fonthill Preparatory School was just what I imagined a Gentlemen’s Club to be like: shiny brown leather armchairs with velvet cushions, long oak tables, panelled walls, a coal fire in the corner, and windows looking on to the branches of an enormous beech tree. And, of course, books. It was there that I came to know the schoolboy classics of the time: the adventures of Biggles, the misadventures of William, and the voyages of the Swallows and the Amazons.

Immemorial Rhythm

Gordon Bowker on Richard Hillyer, Country Boy

Few have recalled that now distant rural way of life with such riveting honesty as Richard Hillyer in his memoir Country Boy. Richard Hillyer was the pseudonym used by Charles James Stranks, the son of a poor farm labourer, born at the dawn of the last century in the isolated Buckinghamshire village of Hardwick (here called Byfield) . . .

Making the Best of It

William Palmer on Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer

‘One day there appeared at luncheon sitting opposite to us a rosy, gray-bearded, bald-headed, gold-spectacled old gentleman who captivated my attention . . . Something seemed to bubble and sparkle in his talk and his eyes twinkled benignly.’ This was one small American girl’s first meeting with Edward Lear in 1870. At about the same time he was writing of himself in his diary: ‘Broken down with a hideous load of sorrow – the blinding accumulation of now nearly 60 years.’

Country Boy

Richard Hillyer

The coloured words flashed out and entranced my fancy. They drew pictures in the mind. Words became magical, incantations, abracadabra which called up spirits. My dormant imagination opened like a flower in the sun. Life at home was drab and colourless, with nothing to light up the dull monotony of the unchanging days. Here in books was a limitless world that I could have for my own. It was like coming up from the bottom of the ocean and seeing the universe for the first time . . .

‘A glorious reassurance . . . ’

B. Staffen, Swansea

‘To all at Slightly Foxed, Today, 21st January 2019, is apparently ‘Blue Monday’, considered, by some, to be the most depressing day of the year. Well, I find that I must disagree with this nomenclature . . . ’

‘I’m loving the podcasts – great to have such insights into the workings of SF . . .’

C. Spencer, Dorset

‘I’m loving the podcasts – great to have such insights into the workings of SF. And, of course, I am still so in love with SF itself – it is an absolute joy.’

‘Very much enjoying these podcasts . . .’

R. Greggs, Massachusetts, United States

‘Very much enjoying these podcasts. And it’s OK to hear the dogs contributing their comments to the conversation. And Country Boy, it ranks as my favorite SF Edition book. Thanks to everyone.’

‘I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your most recent Podcast . . .’

A. Brownlie, York

‘I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your most recent Podcast. I am recuperating from major surgery, and I have to admit this is the first podcast of any kind I have ever listened to. What fun to feel we are sitting round your table. Has my coffee mug left a ring? I particularly enjoyed the comments on the Virago Modern Classics. It took me back to my bookselling days when the list was first launched. Since you published my little piece about Harrods Library (SF 32) I have become addicted to your wonderful quarterly, and it is always a joy to hear it arrive on the mat. Vivat Slightly Foxed’

‘I’m also delighting in your podcasts . . . ’

R. Barlow, Victoria, Canada

‘. . . I’m also delighting in your podcasts. As it happens, I discovered podcasts last fall and was thrilled that your first episode coincided with my subscription order. The stars were aligned! It’s life-affirming to hear you discuss your focus on quality over bling (while in the background dogs bark and builders build). The most recent one about reprints is my favourite so far. So, I write to say thank you to all of you for producing a wonderful publication and keeping me sane during the tempests of life. Best wishes from a smiling Canadian!’

‘Congratulations on the accolade for your podcast from The Sunday Times . . .’

W. Edmond, Market Harborough

‘Congratulations on the accolade for your podcast from The Sunday Times – very well deserved!’

‘Two episodes in and I’m hooked . . . ’

W. Percy

‘Sick of bestsellers and celebrity authors? Escape into a civilized world of knowledgeable and witty bibliophiles. Two episodes in and I’m hooked. The host skillfully weaves the conversation round the kitchen table at this pocket-sized magazine as the Slightly Foxed team and their guests discuss lesser-known literary gems. I particularly enjoyed hearing from the formidable and entertaining Frances Wood, formerly of the British Library, about her time spent in Mao’s China. This is a real find.’

‘The equivalent of a bookish chat with a good friend . . . ’

A. Parsons, Warwickshire

‘Dear slightly foxes, I listen to a wide range of bookish podcasts and yours has gone straight to the top of my favourites list. My only mistake was listening to it in the car on my morning commute rather than settling down in a comfy armchair with a cup of tea. It honestly does feel like the equivalent of a bookish chat with a good friend.’

‘It’s a terrific honour . . .’

Michèle Mendelssohn

‘I’m over the moon, pleased as punch and downright delighted that my book has been shortlisted. It’s a terrific honour.’

‘Thank you to the judges and to the Biographers’ Club . . .’

Bart van Es

‘I’m hugely happy to be on the shortlist. Many of the previous winners are books I’m familiar with and love, so it’s exciting to be (sort of) in their company. I can only say “thank you!” to the judges and to the Biographers’ Club.’

‘I am honoured and delighted . . . ’

Roland Philipps

‘I am honoured and delighted that A Spy Named Orphan has been chosen for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2018, not least because of the brilliant, fascinating and varied company it keeps on the shortlist.’

‘I’m delighted to be shortlisted . . . ’

Fiona Sampson

‘I’m delighted to be shortlisted by such a distinguished set of judges, and especially for the Biographers Club, who keep our genre thriving despite the pressures exerted by changes in literary fashion, publishing and bookselling.’

‘What a delightful 60th issue of Slightly Foxed . . . ’

J. Isaacson, Dorset

‘What a delightful 60th issue of Slightly Foxed, especially the art work by Posy Simmonds. Enjoyable to see the dogs portrayed, Stanley looks to be a dog with attitude. I also enjoyed and can identify with fellow subscriber Janet Morgan’s views about Facebook. I should have liked to have attended the recent celebrations at the London Library Reading Room but at least this year I was able to come to the Readers’ Day which I enjoyed. Thank you for the hard work it must have been to organise. The venue was delightful too.’

‘Slightly Foxed really is quite special . . . ’

F. Glaser, Belgium

‘Slightly Foxed really is quite special, and always a pleasure to read; I’m sure it’ll be inspiring some more bookish gifts over the coming years! If I don’t hear from you again this year, many thanks for everything, have a wonderful Christmas, and a very happy New Year.’

10 Dec 2018

‘One of your best productions . . .’

F. Karabotsos, Canada

‘The E.H. Shepard books have arrived! They are so chock full of illustrations! Wonderful. I wish more of your SFEs had pictures. Love that the covers and endpapers alternate colours. Makes them a subtle matching set. One of your best productions.’

‘The volume was all that I had expected, and more . . . ’

B. Anderson, United States

‘As to the production of A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book – I must say many thanks. The red ribbon page marker was an unexpected special touch. Only my leather-bound volumes seem to have such a useful device. The paper bookmark was also an added bonus, as was the signed postcard. The volume itself was all that I had expected, and more . . . ’

15 Dec 2018

‘What would I do without you?’

J. Elliott, Shropshire

‘I have just renewed my membership for another three years. What would I do without you? Slightly Foxed is one of the good things to look forward to every quarter, you bring a smile to my lips and joy to my heart with every issue. Thank you! All best wishes.’

22 Nov 2018

Legends of the Grail

Simon Brett

‘Some people are snooty about illustrating grown-up fiction, vapouring on about how their imaginations will generate all the images they need. The riposte to that is Dickens and Phiz, Surtees and Leech, Sherlock Holmes and Sidney Paget. In the past The Folio Society has added to this roll of honour with such achievements as Joan Hassall’s wood engravings for Jane Austen, Simon Brett’s for a gamut running from Keats and Shelley to Legends of the Grail, Charles Keeping’s drawings for the 16-volume Dickens, Edward Bawden’s linocuts for Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. Folio threw a lifeline to illustrators as work for advertisers and magazines began to dry up from the 1950s, and it continues to be the one firm regularly commissioning pictures for something other than children’s books.’

Winter Garden

Miriam Macgregor

Miriam Macgregor’s seasonal wood engraving decorated the contents page of Issue 36 of Slightly Foxed, Winter 2012.

Potter’s Dark Materials

Sue Gee on Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Mr Tod

Set in a brooding Cumberland landscape of crags, empty dwellings and moonlit woodland, the characters, menacing atmosphere and plot of Mr Tod have all the hallmarks of classic crime fiction – approaching, indeed, something much greater.

1 Mar 2004

Slightly Foxed Subscribers’ Writing Competition 2019

The deadline for the Slightly Foxed Subscribers’ Writing Competition 2019 has now passed. We will be in touch with the winner(s) in due course, and an announcement will be made in the forthcoming Summer issue of Slightly Foxed, published 1 June.

Join the Slightly Foxed team

Slightly Foxed is looking for a friendly, enthusiastic person to join their London office on a full-time basis. The Administrator (Office & Subscriptions) will be responsible for processing subscriptions, packing orders, gift-wrapping, stock management and general day-to-day office administration among other things

We need a lively, well-organized person who enjoys communicating with customers. Slightly Foxed prides itself on its personal, friendly and high-end service so, in this role, you’ll be a very important part of the team.

Manhattan Moments

Kristian Doyle on Maeve Brennan, The Long-Winded Lady: Notes from the New Yorker

In January 1954, a vignette appeared in the New Yorker’s ‘Talk of the Town’ section, introduced only vaguely as a missive from ‘a rather long-winded lady’. The piece – like all ‘Talk’ stories then, unsigned – was a lightly sardonic first-person account of a woman’s disastrous experience in a dress shop. It might not have been world-changing, but it did stand out from the usual ‘Talk’ pieces, which were often impersonal, mannered little things, written in the royal ‘we’. The Long-Winded Lady, though, idiosyncratic from the beginning, spoke only for herself. ‘Well, there you are,’ she signed off, ‘in case you’ve paid any attention.’

‘What a delight . . . ’

P. Guest, Victoria, Australia

‘What a delight and what a coincidence! The very day that your first podcast arrived on my tablet, I had a small operation on one of my eyes that for a brief period is preventing me from reading. Now I can savour the delights of Slightly Foxed with one of my eyes heavily bandaged. Sheer bliss as I rest up for a few days while I wait for my next print edition to arrive.’

The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize Shortlist 2018

Slightly Foxed and the Biographers’ Club are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2018. The prize of £2,500 will be awarded on 26 February with a drinks reception at Maggs Bros. on Bedford Square, London.

‘Gentle joy . . . ’

M. and R. Levy, Somerset

‘My reason for writing is that today we listened to your new podcast as we drove to pick up our son from university. I listen to quite a few of these and they vary from fascinating to self-indulgent. What you have done is a very difficult thing to do and is hardly ever done as well as your podcast does it – to represent and bring to life in a new medium the experience you give your subscribers through the quarterly. The whole feeling of gentle joy we get from discovering new books and authors and being reminded of old favourites was there as was so much else we get from your quarterly and what it opens up. Thank you and keep them coming.’

Yes, Yes, Sir Jasper!

Julia Keay on Georgette Heyer

My father read these books? The strict disciplinarian, the occasionally benevolent dictator, the terrifying dispenser of chastisement? How could he like them?

Dog Days

Jeremy Noel-Tod on W. G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn

Freely mixing words and pictures throughout, The Rings of Saturn is an exquisite scrapbook of the after-the-fact, its faded yet vivid photographs set like silk scraps into paragraphs of arabesque, antiquarian prose.

1 Jun 2008

‘An intimate setting in which we were cherished, invited guests . . . ’

P. Watson-Farrar, Norfolk

‘Absolutely loved hearing both podcasts today, one after the other. May I say how much my enjoyment was enriched by the clear, fluent way all participants expressed themselves, and in such lovely mellow tones, managing to convey an intimate setting in which we, the listeners, were cherished, invited guests around a familiar and comfortable table. Warmest thoughts to you all.’

Christmas Holidays

Extract from Drawn from Memory, Ernest H. Shepard

We three children were looking forward to Mother’s birthday, which was December 18th. December was ‘our’ birthday month, Cyril’s on the 20th, mine on the 10th: but the 18th was by far the most important. With a view to deciding what was to be done, we gathered round the schoolroom table, each armed with a statement of his or her financial resources. My assets were contained in an old purse that I kept hidden in a corner of the writing desk. This I emptied on the table. The contents were: one silver sixpence, one silver threepenny bit, and an assortment of coppers – total one shilling and tenpence halfpenny. Cyril was not in a much stronger position, and it remained for Ethel to retrieve the situation, which, I have to admit, she did most nobly. Lucky enough to have a godmother who sent her postal orders she was able to produce nearly ten shillings. Most magnanimously, she suggested that we pool our resources and give Mother one really nice present rather than three inferior ones. Cyril and I volunteered to draw and paint a birthday card between us, and we left it to Ethel to decide on the nature of the present.

The Oldest Paper in the World

Frances Wood on The Oldest Paper in the World

It is not surprising that having invented paper over 2,000 years ago, the Chinese found a wide variety of ways to use it. Though the seventeenth-century landscape artist and arbiter of taste, Wen Zhengheng, considered painted wallpaper vulgar, Li Yu (1611–80), owner of the Mustard Seed Garden, advocated brown rather than white wallpaper, and Chinese painted wallpaper depicting birds, flowers, garden architecture and butterflies became popular in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1794, the first British ambassador to China, Lord Macartney, even brought back a set painted with scenes of Chinese streets and workshops for his banker Mr Coutts which can still be seen in the bank’s boardroom.

Whatever Happened to Elizabeth Jenkins?

Nigel Andrew on Elizabeth Jenkins

When she died in 2010, at the astonishing age of 104, the novelist and biographer Elizabeth Jenkins was all but forgotten, her name known only to a few aficionados, her books mostly long out of print. And yet, in her day, her reputation had been up there with the other distinguished Elizabeths of mid-twentieth-century fiction, Bowen and Taylor. What happened?

A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book by Philip Rhys Evans is on its way to be this year’s novelty bestseller . . .

Vanessa Thorpe, Observer

‘After a long career as a Suffolk GP, Dr Philip Rhys Evans may well be astonished to find himself lined up as a surprise literary hit this winter. But a short book compiled by the now-retired doctor with his wife Christine detailing the funny, bizarre and poignant situations he has encountered over his many years in practice is now a novelty Christmas title attracting glowing reviews . . .’

‘A super addition to the Slightly Foxed repertoire . . . ’

W. Edmond, Leicestershire

‘What a super addition to The Slightly Foxed repertoire, very well done Foxes! I’m sure I’m not the only subscriber who feels that they are now even more part of the Troop, it felt very cosy to be in the The Slightly Foxed Earth, as it were! Looking forward to Episode 2.’

‘This is completely different to other literary podcasts . . .’

Cambette

‘. . . It’s about good reads you’ve never heard of. I’ve now got a long list of fascinating books to buy after only two episodes and not a single “bestseller” among them! A new gem.’

‘Unmissable! Inviting; stimulating . . . ’

Bibliophile Annie

‘Unmissable! Inviting; stimulating; a companionable encouragement to persevere in reading widely and well. The first episode has already added some newcomers to my “to read” list, and I’m very much looking forward to future instalments. You will, too. Novel!’

‘Excellent voices, really interesting content . . . ’

S. Naidoo, Norfolk

‘Wonderful! I am in the middle of listening to the first one (using The Podcast App). Had to stop in order to tell you how thrilled I am. Excellent voices, really interesting content, this is just what I hoped for. Thank you so much and congratulations to the whole team.’

‘Oh joy, now you are sitting around my kitchen table as well! A masterly development for Slightly Foxed and one that adds another layer of pleasure to your inspirational idea and beautifully produced journals.’

L. Tones, County Durham

Neither a Borrower . . . ?

Oliver Pritchett on some more elementary dos and don’ts of book etiquette

Every year the registrar of Public Lending Right issues a report on the authors whose books have been most often borrowed from libraries. You can be sure these days that Danielle Steel, Josephine Cox and James Patterson will be up there with the leaders, but it might be more interesting, I think, to discover the name of the author whose books we borrow most often from each other. We need more information about these delicate transactions between friends. I’d also like to know the title of the book which is most often borrowed and never returned, and I’d be disappointed to learn that it was something like A Sensible Guide to Home Plumbing or The Grouter’s Friend . . .

Between the Lines

Sue Gee on E. H. Shepard, Drawn from Memory & Drawn from Life

It is hard to know whether it is the featherlight words of A. A. Milne or the airy ‘decorations’ of E. H. Shepard that everyone has ever since loved the more, so perfect was their partnership . . .

‘I am transported every time I hear from you to that “Wonderful Land of Books” that lives within us. It is lovely to hear your voices and learn how it all began. You are a light in the darkness for us across the seas.’

C. Taft, United States

‘They are really delightful . . .’

C. Dawson

‘Thank you very much for the bookmarks that came with my recent order, they are really delightful.’ C. Dawson, Cambridge

‘I’m a big fan and read my quarterly every morning . . .’

D. Graham

‘I’m a big fan and read my quarterly every morning. Keep up the excellent work!’

10 Oct 2018

‘Thank you for my copy of A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book . . .’

M. Arbuthnot

‘Thank you for my copy of A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book and my new jute book bag which is replacing the much loved and worn into holes one that I have at the moment. It is always such a pleasure doing business with you and I really appreciate the personal touch of the accompanying postcard.’

11 Oct 2018

‘A thing of beauty . . .’

J. Darcy

‘So thrilled you’re doing a calendar this year. I was given one as a gift a couple of years ago and was heartbroken to find you weren’t selling one last year. A thing of beauty.’

19 Oct 2018

‘I’m so glad you’ve created a subscription for the Editions . . .’

M. Warnement, United States

‘I can’t wait to get Slightly Foxed Editions 44 and 45. I reread Winnie the Pooh this year and saw the exhibition of Shepard’s drawings. I’m so glad you’ve created a subscription for the Editions, so that I can pay in advance and don’t have to think about it. They will just come, like the gifts they are, as they are published. These are my Christmas gifts to myself. Thank you, and your photos on your website and in your email are beautiful’.

19 Oct 2018

Birth of a Book

A short vignette of a book being created using traditional printing methods. Shot at Smith-Settle Printers, Leeds, England for the Daily Telegraph. The book being printed is Slightly Foxed Edition No. 18, Suzanne St Albans, Mango and Mimosa Shot, Directed…

‘What a restorative healing transfusion SF is . . .’

J. Sanger, United States

‘I have just renewed online for 3 years, but if I could have done so for 10 years I would have. I cannot tell you what a restorative healing transfusion SF is.’ J. Sanger, United States

11 Sep 2018

‘I love Slightly Foxed . . . ’

R. Edlin-White, Nottingham

‘I love Slightly Foxed and tend to have several on the go at once – one on the breakfast table, one in the car and the latest issue beside my bed. I’ve discovered several ‘new’ authors including J. L. Carr (hilarious) who have become simply indispensible. My speciality is ‘forgotten’ authors so SF is just my thing!’

5 Nov 2018

‘The podcast is yet something else from Slightly Foxed to enchant. Thank you so much for giving me such pleasure throughout the years.’

B. Hulm

Not So Plain Jane

Daisy Hay on Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre was the novel that opened my eyes to literature. It was the first classic I picked up that I couldn’t put down. I read it from cover to cover in one heady weekend when I was 13: I had a nightmare about Grace Poole on Saturday night, and a sulk on Sunday afternoon when my mother made me put it down to talk to some cousins who’d come for tea. By Sunday evening I was done and I knew, with a certainty I still remember vividly, that literature was my thing . . .

Cover Artist: Issue 61, Faith Chevannes

Faith Chevannes

Faith Chevannes is from the Tamar valley on the Devon and Cornwall border. Her drypoint prints and mixed media pieces are inspired by the spectacular landscape around her and reflect its ever-changing seasons, its wildlife and its ancient farming cycles.

Cover Artist: Issue 60, Chris Wormell, ‘The Fox’

Chris Wormell never went to art college or had any formal training and is entirely self-taught. Nevertheless, he has become one of the finest illustrators working in Britain today. His illustrations, predominantly wood engravings or linocuts, are timeless, beautiful and inspiring.

Well Done, Carruthers!

Jim Ring on Erskine Childers, Riddle of the Sands

In the depths of last winter the bathroom, if by no means warm, was the least glacial room in the house. Ever since the children were born it’s also been the only place in our North Norfolk home in which there is sufficient freedom from interruption to read. I was convalescing from Zadie Smith (On Beauty) and needed the literary equivalent of comfort food: of toad in the hole, cottage pie or dead man’s leg. The choice was Howard’s End, Brideshead Revisited or The Riddle of the Sands, all steadfast companions since I grew out of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. There was a rattle of rain on the bathroom window. It was an evening for Erskine Childers. I closed the door firmly on the children, drew the bath and settled down to read.

Thomas Hardy’s Study At Max Gate

Howard Phipps

Howard Phipps studied painting and printmaking at The Gloucestershire College of Art. He is now based near Salisbury and is probably best known for his drawings and engravings of the chalk downs of Wiltshire and Dorset.

Nettlecombe: Garden in October

Claire Dalby

‘As the Second World War draws to a close, a group of six friends pool resources in order to rent a sizeable House in the Country – capital H, capital C. Their list of requirements is exacting. It has to be ‘one of those houses that’s been built bit by bit, for hundreds of years’. It has to have acres of land and dozens of outhouses. As it turns out, such a house does exist, a pretty, rambling but rather rundown Tudor manor house in deepest Kent. And so they move in . . .’

November News: The gift of beautifully packaged good reading

If you would like to introduce a fellow booklover to the world of Slightly Foxed this Christmas, why not get your order in before the rush? The packing desk is well-equipped with rolls of good brown paper, lengths of foxy cream ribbon, piles of wood-engraved gift cards and towers of handsome gift boxes in hopeful anticipation . . .

Swallows and Amazons for Ever!

Jim Ring on Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

The train from the south drew in to the junction with the line that led to the hills. We changed, and already there was freshness in the air on a day of azure skies and deep shadows. I went to admire the Puffing Billy that was to haul us on the last leg of our journey, inhaling the intoxicating cocktail of hot oil and steam that engines exude. The whistle blew, I ran back to the carriage, the doors slammed, and we clanked our way west with the setting sun. I hurried from side to side of the carriage . . .

Edgcumbes Coffee Roasters & Tea Merchants

Slightly Foxed Subscriber Benefits

Slightly Foxed subscribers receive a 10% discount on Edgcumbes freshly-roasted coffee and hand-blended loose leaf tea products . . .

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

Reading Retreat

Slightly Foxed Subscriber Benefits

Slightly Foxed subscribers receive a 10% discount on reading retreats at lovely houses around the UK . . .

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

The Old Bakery

Slightly Foxed Subscriber Benefits

Slightly Foxed subscribers receive a 10% on reading retreats at The Old Bakery . . .

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

October News: Forest School

As the build-up to Christmas in all of its fun and exhausting glory fast approaches, the office foxes have been wondering if they could abandon the scaffold-clad confines of Hoxton Square for a spell in the forest. But then who would greet Paul from Smith Settle with the winter haul in a few weeks’ time, hand-write gift messages, swaddle parcels in tape and wrestle postbags downstairs for our cheery postman to collect each day? No! It simply won’t do. We are far too fond of our readers and conscious of their literary present requirements for that so, for this month’s mailing, we’re making do with a spot of armchair escapism with Brendon Chase instead . . .

Forest School

Helena Drysdale on BB, Brendon Chase

It’s the end of the Easter holidays, and Robin, John and Harold Hensman can’t face returning to their boarding-school. Their ‘people’ are in India, and for years they’ve been entrusted to the care of their fussy maiden aunt, assisted by the vicar. Banchester isn’t bad as English public schools go, but they are country boys who dread being trapped in a classroom when summer approaches and the great outdoors calls. They hatch a plan. They will escape and hide out like Robin Hood and his merry men in the eleven-thousand-acre forest of Brendon Chase . . .

‘I truly love your publication . . .’

L. Bastien, USA

‘This past Christmas my husband gave me a gift subscription to your publication (I’m sure my having strategically placed your catalogue in places I was sure he’d see it helped him know what I really wanted . . .) Opening my mail box and finding a package addressed to me is a simple pleasure that makes me smile . . . even more so now as it will be from SF. I must tell you I truly love your publication. I knew I needed a subscription as soon as I received a back issue you sent me (no. 50) last February. I’m thoroughly enjoying having digital access now, as well. I bring my iPad to my daughter’s dance classes and read to my heart’s content. Thank you all!’ L. Bastien, United States

2 Mar 2018

‘May you continue to increase horizons for evermore . . .’

T. Kreling, London

‘Thank you all for excellent telephone contact, speedy & secure delivery, appropriate bookmark and card: may you continue to increase horizons for evermore.’ T. Kreling, London

22 Aug 2018

‘How different from anything I have ever read . . .’

J. Cawthorne, Suffolk

‘I adored Jennie Erdal’s book – how different from anything I have ever read. Warmly admiring of all the Slightly Foxed team.’ J. Cawthorne, Suffolk

19 Sep 2018

‘I just love the notebooks . . .’

D. Sayed, Surrey

‘Thank you for all my lovely goodies posted recently. I just love the notebooks and the Christmas cards are for special people. I’m so looking forward to the calendar and The Christmas Cracker. I find your online shop extraordinary and no matter how busy you are, or who answers the phone, there is always chat time. Thank you.’ D. Sayed, Surrey

‘A joy to hold in your hand . . .’

B. Davidson, London

‘Just a quick note to thank you for the delivery of my recent order of A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, a great surprise in this morning’s post, just as I hoped it would be, very dry and clever, plus the second copy is one Christmas present off the list. As usual these books are not only interesting and something I may not necessarily have come across with other publishers, but also a joy to hold in your hand. Many thanks.’ B. Davidson, London

28 Sep 2018

‘An absolute delight . . .’

J. Gilfrin, Hertfordshire

‘Dear all, I just wanted to thank you so much for my order of A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book. It arrived last week, so carefully packed and in immaculate condition. I was particularly touched by the postcard with a message from Olivia enclosed with it, and the bookmark. The book itself, beautifully printed, is an absolute delight. If I find myself feeling a bit down, I pick it up and open at random, and immediately feel better! Many thanks for this and all your excellent publications, not least the wonderful quarterly magazine.’ J. Gilfrin, Hertfordshire

8 Oct 2018

Damian Barr’s Literary Salon

Damian Barr’s Literary Salon tempts the world’s finest writers to the world’s loveliest venues to read from their latest, greatest works and share their own stories. They showcase established names alongside emerging talents, and have invited Slightly Foxed contributors such as Sarah Perry, Richard Holloway and Diana Athill to regale audiences with tales.

September News: This is the way light fell on the picture for me . . .

Greetings from No. 53, where the number of boxes is fast diminishing and the route to the kettle fast widening as the office foxes beaver away to get books into the hands of readers around the world . . . Please read on for an extract from the latest title in the SF Editions list, Jennie Erdal’s wickedly funny Ghosting: A Double Life, introduced by a snippet of SF editor Hazel’s article in the current issue of the quarterly.

Tiger the Literary Lion

Hazel Wood on Jennie Erdal, Ghosting

One day in 1981 a young woman found herself travelling from her Scottish home to London to meet a publisher. So far so predictable perhaps. She had read Russian at university and had recently translated the memoirs of the painter Leonid Pasternak, father of the more famous Boris. There was nothing predictable about this meeting, however, and the man waiting for her at the door of his Mayfair flat was no ordinary publisher. This is how she describes him.

Between the Lines

Linda Leatherbarrow

While enjoying an unaccustomed and leisurely breakfast in bed, Rose was struck by a new thought. She laid down her toast, flicked away a crumb, and gazed gloomily at her surroundings: whatnots, little gilt console tables and hand-me-down tapestry chairs, and that was only the bedroom. What had once seemed so comfortable, offering continuity and a well-polished notion of permanence, was now nothing more than a baleful echo.

‘I absolutely adore it . . .’

E. Mascaretti, Italy

‘I just received my first issue of the magazine and I just wanted to say I absolutely adore it. Thank you for your message and the wonderful bookmark, I’ll immediately add it to my collection.’ E. Mascaretti, Italy

15 Sep 2018

‘The bookmarks arrived today and I am delighted . . .’

C. Russell, Somerset

‘The bookmarks arrived today and I am delighted with them, thank you once again. I am also enjoying hugely catching up on the Foxed Quarterlies I missed!’ C. Russell, Somerset

‘I have enjoyed it so much . . .’

R. Antelme, London

‘Dear Slightly Foxed, I was recently given a subscription to your quarterly booklets for my 50th birthday. It was from a very good friend that I introduced to Persephone Books. So I knew, having never heard of your books, that it would be good as my friend has great literary taste! I have devoured the Summer read . . . ’

15 Oct 2018

September News: Wonders & Absurdities

Each Christmas for the past sixteen years Dr Philip Evans has sent his friends and family a small booklet of ‘wonders and absurdities’ gleaned from many different sources over the year. When he sent the booklets to us they made us laugh so much we decided to publish a selection. The result is A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, a very personal look at the pleasures and eccentricities of English life from a well-read individual with a keen sense of humour and many decades of observing his fellow men and women in his work as a Suffolk GP. Altogether this is a little book we’d say you can’t do without in these serious and uncertain times . . .

Slightly Foxed Issue 60: From the Editors

Gail Pirkis & Hazel Wood

Well, this issue is our 60th, and it’s making us feel a bit ruminative – emotional even – remembering the little group (four plus a baby) who sat round Gail’s kitchen table, discussing an idea for a magazine that we weren’t at all sure would work. The baby is at secondary school now and the original four has nearly trebled, if we count all the great people, both full-time and part-time and with ages ranging over six decades, who contribute to the production of Slightly Foxed.

Autumn 2018 Launch Party: A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book

Slightly Foxed & the Leaping Hare

welcomed friends, subscribers and local book-lovers to Wyken Vineyards to celebrate the publication of the Autumn issue of Slightly Foxed, SFE No. 43: Jennie Erdal’s Ghosting and a Slightly Foxed Special.

Our guests enjoyed books galore, a glass of wine and readings of wonders and absurdities!

Wall Street Journal’s Five Best: Lynne Olson on Britain’s European Allies

We’re absolutely delighted to see that John Hackett’s memoir I Was a Stranger has been selected by author Lynne Olson for her The Wall Street Journal ‘Five Best’ books feature on Britain’s European Allies . . .

Jarrold

The Book Department
1-11 London Street
Norwich NR2 1JF

Tel: 01603 697278

www.jarrold.co.uk

‘Thank you so much for your help and patience . . .’

C. Parker, Norwich

‘To whichever kind person stayed online and on the phone this afternoon as I ploughed on trying to place an order for your Summer-Clean. I have since been into my online account and enjoyed whizzing through all the options. I don’t know what I was doing wrong but thank you so much for your help and patience on such a hot day and when you’re in the midst of so much internet activity. Stars all!’

23 Aug 2018

‘What you do at Slightly Foxed is inspirational . . .’

D. Wakefield, Somerset

‘My parcel arrived this morning; I couldn’t believe it. Such efficiency on SF and PO’s parts, thank you! I’m delighted with its contents; it’s quite startling to feel that happy with a parcel at 77. The cards are witty and pretty, the little green notebook is perfect for quick thoughts and observations, and I love the paperback’s size and content . . . ’

3 Aug 2018

‘I have nearly finished Blue Remembered Hills which is wonderful . . .’

C. Gillespie, Surrey

‘Hattie (if I may), I have nearly finished Blue Remembered Hills which is wonderful and I’m so glad I found your site. The packaging was excellent and showed real care in looking after books and thanks for the catalogue and bookmark – always useful. Pity you aren’t in South London! (for me anyway.) Looking forward to dealing with you again and thanks for an extremely prompt transaction. Cheers.’

Bookshop of the Quarter: Autumn 2018

We’re delighted that the Corsham Bookshop has sold copies of Slightly Foxed for the past thirteen years and recommends us to readers each and every quarter. Therefore, it was a pleasure to learn more about life at the bookshop, as well as add to our reading list, courtesy of bookseller Janet Brakspear.

Autumn

Llewellyn Thomas

‘It’s hard to believe autumn is here already. But the days are shortening, the air is growing brisker, and gradually the city is coming to life again as people trickle back after the long summer break. London is back in business, and it’s all go here in the Slightly Foxed office, with the latest of the Slightly Foxed Editions and Slightly Foxed Cubs arriving from the printers, and some new projects afoot . . .’

A Skein of Wild Geese

C. F. Tunnicliffe

‘The essays sparkle with precise details. Whether he’s picking out the order of birdsong at dawn in a Wisconsin wood, following a mink track through the snow in January or tracing the first signs of thaw in spring, the essays are warm, beautiful things. They have some of the aphoristic appeal of Emerson, the wildness of Thoreau, the poetry of Whitman – but it’s the rhythm of them that gets you . . .’

La Casella Villa

Slightly Foxed Subscriber Benefits

Slightly Foxed subscribers receive a 10% discount on bookings from September to June at this farmhouse in Umbria . . .

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

Munnings Art Museum Birthday Lecture

Wednesday 3 October 2018
Dedham Assembly Rooms, Essex

The Munnings Art Museum’s second birthday lecture was a wonderful opportunity to hear life stories from broadcaster and former politician, Martin Bell OBE, in a beautiful setting. Like Sir Alfred Munnings, Bell grew up in the Waveney Valley on the Suffolk/Norfolk border and his father, farmer, writer and first Times crossword compiler Adrian Bell was friends with Munnings in the 1930s.

‘It made my heart race . . .’

S. Harris Ramini

‘I couldn’t be more delighted with Slightly Foxed. I have been a member for some time now, loving the reviews, relishing the superb writing style, but until now I had never bought any of the specially bound books. Oh, I’d made lists of my favourites and promised myself this treat but just never actually got around to it. Then I read the review of Ghosting by Jennifer Erdal. It made my heart race . . .’

September News: What glory!

It’s the turn of the quarter once again here at Slightly Foxed and what a glorious haul the new season brings.

Thanks to the usual sterling work of Tracey and her team at Smith Settle printers in Yorkshire, the new issue of the quarterly: No. 59, ‘Manhattan Moments’, is now on its way to readers all around the world. We do hope you’ll enjoy it when it arrives.

August News: The last days of summer

The last days of the Slightly Foxed Summer Clean are upon us . . . Don’t forget that for all orders over £20 received before the end of the month we’ll send you a complimentary set of handsome bookmarks by way of thanks.

August News: Marching with Marlborough

It is August 1704 and the Duke of Marlborough is leading an allied army through the Low Countries to challenge the Catholic Louis XIV of France, who has his eye on the Spanish throne . . .

Do read on for an introduction to Ronald Welch’s Captain of Dragoons, a wonderfully atmospheric and fast-moving book set during the early years of the War of the Spanish Succession, by our dear – now sadly departed – friend, reader and regular contributor Jeremy Lewis.

‘Slightly Foxed is exactly the right size for handbags . . .’

G. Wootten, Darlington

‘Has anyone ever told you that Slightly Foxed is exactly the right size for handbags in any situation where a boring wait is part of the procedure? I never go to the surgery without it, even if it means re-reading contributions as they always bear a second look . . .’

4 Mar 2018

‘The wisest perspective of entertaining and diverting reading . . .’

A. Evans, Twickenham

‘Herewith my cheque hoping that, for another two years, you will continue to deliver the wisest perspective of entertaining and diverting reading. All good wishes to you all . . .’

18 Jan 2018

‘The Fox continues to be a welcome highlight in my year . . .’

S. Stock, Essex

‘Dear Fox, As ever, it’s good to be reminded that my subscription has expired. I can’t imagine not wanting to renew. As ever, I have enjoyed my year of reading, both reading the articles and, through them, (re)discovering books and authors. The Fox continues to be a welcome highlight in my year. I had . . . ’

16 Jan 2018

Shelf Life

Ysenda Maxtone Graham on culling bookshelves

‘You must be cruel to be kind,’ gardeners tell you, about pruning roses. ‘The more you cut them down, the more they love it.’ This might be true of roses but is it true of book collections? I should imagine they absolutely hate it. Or perhaps the ones that survive are so relieved that they turn a blind eye to the atrocities going on further down the shelf . . .

August News: By Order of the Editors, Wayzgoose Holiday

We don’t really do sales here at Slightly Foxed so instead we thought we’d simply send out a plea to our dear readers to help us clear a shelf or two this August, and take the opportunity to stock up on paperbacks, notebooks, back issues and cards . . .

August News: The Slightly Foxed Summer Clean

We don’t really do sales here at Slightly Foxed so instead we thought we’d simply send out a plea to our dear readers to help us clear a shelf or two this August, and take the opportunity to stock up on paperbacks, notebooks, back issues and cards . . .

The City Reader: A Modern Newsstand

3050 SE Division St.
Portland, OR 97202
USA

www.the-city-reader.com

All the Fun of the Fair

Gerry Cotter on Second-hand Book Fairs

It was only after I retired that I looked along my bookshelves and realized there were many books I was never going to open again – so why not try to sell them? I signed up to sell online and was delighted when Heidegger’s Being and Time, unopened for decades and then only very briefly, sold the next day. This was evidently a Good Idea. I had been attending book fairs for years, so the next step was obvious: take a stall at a fair . . .

‘A beautifully produced volume . . .’

A. Bown, Leicestershire

‘Hello all at Slightly Foxed, thanks so much for The Road to Waterloo which arrived today – safe, sound and unexpectedly early! Once again, it’s a beautifully produced volume and maintains your brilliantly high standards. Your Ronald Welch collection has pride of place amongst some much loved and well used children’s books from three generations . . . ’ A. Bown, Leicestershire

‘One of those books which is about nothing and yet everything . . .’

L. Cameron, Devon

‘I wanted to thank you for introducing us to Adrian Bell, who both my husband and I have really enjoyed. I did not think I would at all, in fact out of all your editions I thought his sounded like the one I would least enjoy – and then somehow I read Corduroy and was mesmerized. It is so beautiful, one of those books which is about nothing and yet everything . . .’

27 Sep 2016

‘A magical description of a vanished time . . .’

M. Sandberg, Lincolnshire

‘I just wanted to tell you all how very much I have enjoyed Adrian Bell’s Corduroy. It is a magical description of a vanished time, very evocative in so many ways and has kept me engrossed far beyond my usual lights out time . . .’

‘Blessings for being a bright spot in my life . . .’

K. Petersen, USA

‘I have just finished devouring Corduroy and Silver Ley and am hoping that you will publish the third book in the trilogy. My husband is a farmer in a small way (they’re all small in New England) and these books (plus Brensham Village) capture the joys (quiet) and character – as well as the trials – of farming . . .’

20 Dec 2017

‘Your small publication is a jewel . . .’

E. Smithies, Canada

‘Your small publication is a jewel and I look forward to every issue. My best to you all,’ E. Smithies, Canada

31 Jan 2018

‘It seems like an old friend . . .’

J. Lange, Glasgow

‘I’m so glad I discovered Slightly Foxed even if it was only a couple of years ago. It seems like an old friend; the reviews are perfectly pitched in terms of length and content and the feel of the magazine is so good . . .’

2 Jan 2018

Pride and Prejudice

Joan Hassall

‘So “why do I like Miss Austen so very much”, and why do I think Pride and Prejudice perfect? Because it is, quite simply, magical. There is nothing “common-place” about Pride and Prejudice. It has a tightly woven, seductively intricate plot, which unfolds so delicately that the reader falls blindly into the traps of imperception set by the author, alongside that most perfect of imperfect heroines, Elizabeth Bennet . . .’

‘Best present ever . . .’

E. Castellucci, Hove

‘I can’t wait to receive the first magazine. I had a peek at the digital version and I already love it. Best present ever . . . ’

‘An island of warmth and civility . . .’

M. Ward, Northampton

‘To all at Slightly Foxed – providing an island of warmth and civility amongst the fury’ M. Ward, Northampton

20 Dec 2016

‘I’m going to frame one of the cards . . .’

N. Wineriter, USA

‘Dear Slightly Foxed, Yes, I know Christmas is over, but I’m getting an early start for this year and placing an order now! Absolutely LOVE the Christmas card design. I could look at it all year. I’m going to frame one of the cards. Thank you!’

2 Feb 2016

‘I am working my way through the book with great delight . . .’

D. Jennings, Manchester

‘Dear Slightly Foxed, Many thanks for No. 48 and 84, Charing Cross Road. Ms Hanff has lost none of her exuberant charm over the years and I am working my way through the book with great delight . . .’

15 Dec 2015

‘Thank you for your lovely newsletters . . .’

P. Oley, South Shields

‘Thank you for your lovely newsletters and for the pleasure I get from reading each copy of Slightly Foxed. I really look forward to it coming. I wish I lived nearer . . .’

14 Dec 2015

‘Beautiful copy of 84, Charing Cross Road . . .’

J. Barry, Hertfordshire

‘A little early to send a Christmas card, but I felt I needed to thank you after such a after such a pleasant weekend, due to the arrival of both the Winter issue of the magazine and the beautiful copy of 84, Charing Cross Road . . .’

30 Nov 2015

‘The bookplate designs are all so beautiful . . .’

T. Wintringham, New Zealand

‘With shrieks of glee and clapping of hands like a small child at Christmas, I am delighted to say that my bookplates arrived today. I absolutely love them! The designs are all so beautiful. It was very difficult to choose . . .’

‘I hope the Slightly Foxed Christmas Card becomes an annual offer!’

S. Jackson, Manchester

‘Thank you for the pack of The Slightly Foxed Christmas Card, which I purchased to give to my reading group friends. The photograph didn’t do it justice . . .’

23 Oct 2015

‘Thank you so much for the review of the Cazalet Chronicles . . .’

K. Baumaris, Chester

‘Thank you so much for the review of the Cazalet Chronicles last year. On the basis of that I have now read all five, my mother is enjoying them also, and my eldest sister is next in line. None of us can understand how this lovely writer appears so little acknowledged in literature . . . ’

‘In the pages of Slightly Foxed I have found my people . . .’

C. Whittemore, Gloucestershire

‘The current SF has many treasures; I’m especially struck by Sarah Perry’s piece on The Blue Field – I adore these blue flowers, admire Sarah Perry, and love ‘the Englishness of parsnip wine drunk in imprudent quantities . . .’ And how good to see Robin Blake on The Man on a Donkey, a much-loved book in my childhood home that I thought forgotten. So, in the pages of Slightly Foxed I have found my people . . .’

8 Jul 2018

‘I am absolutely hooked . . .’

M. Lyons, London

‘To my shame, I have only recently subscribed to Slightly Foxed but I am absolutely hooked. Thank you for everything you all do. It is such a lovely thing.’ M. Lyons, London

12 Jul 2018

‘I really enjoyed Sarah Perry’s article . . .’

R. Sanders, Devon

‘My parents bought me a gift subscription recently. I may only be halfway through the first edition that I have received (No. 58), but I really enjoyed Sarah Perry’s article on The Blue Field and I wanted to order the Slightly Foxed edition . . .’

‘I was immediately intrigued . . .’

Suzannah Rowntree, Vintage Novels

‘The other week, a surprise parcel turned up in the mail for me. Inside was a beautiful, clothbound new edition of a never-before-published Ronald Welch book, The Road to Waterloo . . .’

A Confrontation with Evil

Ursula Buchan on Richard Hillary, The Last Enemy

It seems a rather odd thing to admit these days, but I spent much of my youth reading war comics and watching war films. That’s how it was if you lived in a house filled with boys in the 1960s. As a result I can still recite, without recourse to Wikipedia, the names of the three men who won a bar to the Victoria Cross (Chavasse, Martin- Leake and Upham, if you are interested), and I can easily recall the boiling hot afternoons during the summer holidays that I spent at Tobruk or on the Normandy beaches, flying low over the Möhne dam or high in the skies above Kent – all while sitting in a 1/9d seat at the Regal Cinema, Wallingford . . .

Solstice Lunar Eclipse

Kathleen Lindsley

We’ve celebrated the art of wood engraving from the very first issue of Slightly Foxed, using these richly detailed illustrations to decorate our articles. In Issue 43 we began an occasional series of standalone features on some of our favourite engravers, and Kathleen Lindsley was the first. This beautiful engraving of a lunar eclipse seemed to be . . .

July News: The Last Enemy

As the Battle of Britain was being commemorated with a roar of engines and ribbons of coloured smoke for the RAF’s special centenary year celebrations overhead this lunchtime, here at No. 53 we were turning to the bookshelves to prepare to celebrate in a literary fashion for today’s newsletter . . .

June News: In search of the thing itself

Inspired by the thought of fleeing the scaffolding of Hoxton Square, we’re steaming into the Slightly Foxed archives, travelling back to the spring of 2013 and stopping off in Brazil, via Ukraine, to meet one rather extraordinary writer in this month’s article from a back issue . . . ‘Her name is Clarice Lispector, one of the most original and fascinating writers of the twentieth century.’

The Last Enemy

Richard Hillary

September 3 dawned dark and overcast, with a slight breeze ruffling the waters of the estuary. Hornchurch aerodrome, twelve miles east of London, wore its usual morning pallor of yellow fog, lending an added air of grimness to the dimly silhouetted Spitfires around the boundary. From time to time a balloon would poke its head grotesquely through the mist as though looking for possible victims before falling back like some tired monster …

Hurricane Clarice

Michael Marett-Crosby on Clarice Lispector

The sleeper lounge is old-fashioned British Rail, all tartan carpet, smeared tables and microwave cuisine. Tonight it contains a gathering of solitaries, all of us making separate journeys to London. The man beside me is still working, though it’s nearly ten o’clock. By chance we order the same whisky. We raise our plastic glasses, embarrassed in a very British way. I want to encourage him. He is at war with a pile of papers. But he is wishing me good luck as well. He has been glancing at the author’s face on the back cover of my novel. She does rather stare . . .

Attics with Attitude

Elisabeth Russell Taylor on Rachel Khoo, Little Paris Kitchen

I am sometimes asked which writers have changed my life. Next time I shall not answer ‘Proust’ but ‘Rachel Khoo’. For five years, since the death of my husband, I had all but given up cooking and eating, all but forgotten what I had valued before my personal doomsday. Rachel Khoo has re-engaged my taste-buds and my enthusiasm. I may even convert my fantasy dinner parties into real ones. I am already making lists . . .

Northamptonshire’s Ideal Countrymen

Saturday 21 & Sunday 22 July 2018
Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire

The BB Society and the H. E. Bates Group brought together accomplished authors, artists, historians, actors and others at Lamport Hall to celebrate the county’s literary and artistic heritage of ‘BB’ and ‘HE’. There were also displays of pictures, books and memorabilia, as well as film shows and illustrated talks throughout the weekend.

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

Clare Leighton

In Issue 58 of Slightly Foxed, Richard Platt reintroduced us to Henry Thoreau, his tragic tale of loss and his literary road to recovery. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers was written after Henry fled to the woods to work the land and build a cabin, running away from grief and depression that followed the death of his brother. This decoration by Clare Leighton appeared on the cover of the American edition of his book.

The Munnings Art Museum

Slightly Foxed Subscriber Benefits

Slightly Foxed subscribers receive a 25% discount on admission to The Munnings Art Museum . . .

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

‘I simply can’t do without it . . .’

B. Champness, Cornwall

‘A short while ago I made the very bad decision to cancel my subscription to Slightly Foxed. Now I find that I simply can’t do without it. Would it be possible to start it again from when it stopped, so I don’t lose any issues?’

26 Nov 2017

‘A breath of civilization, culture, good humour, intelligence . . .’

G. Grayston, Australia

‘This is to let you know that I have just received the latest SF, for which many thanks. Once again a breath of civilization, culture, good humour, intelligence . . . has entered my life.’

24 Nov 2017

‘I loved the Readers’ Day . . .’

L. Berridge, Devon

‘I wanted to let you know how much I loved the Readers’ Day. It was the first one I’d been to and I very much hope it will be the first of many . . .’

9 Nov 2017

‘Readers’ Day was outstanding in every way . . .’

J. Bunstead-Boother, Dorking

‘Yesterday’s Readers’ Day was outstanding in every way – we loved it all. Thank you to every one of you who made it such a success . . .’

5 Nov 2017

‘Many thanks to everyone for a brilliant day . . .’

H. Evernden, Tunbridge Wells

‘Good morning to all at Slightly Foxed! I felt I must get in touch to let you know how much I enjoyed the Readers’ Day on Saturday. You had chosen a varied and interesting selection of speakers; I especially enjoyed Helena Drysdale and Posy Simmonds. Both had gone to the trouble of preparing an excellent presentation and both were excellent communicators . . .’

5 Nov 2017

‘The bookplates are a terrific product . . .’

S. Morgan, USA

‘The bookplates are a terrific product to offer customers.’ S. Morgan, USA

‘A wonderful addition to my life . . .’

G. Johnston, Brighton

‘Thanks for a fabulous publication. I’ve only been subscribing for this year, but it’s been a wonderful addition to my life. I’ve since read many of the books that you’ve covered in the last few months and have enjoyed them so much – so many brilliant reads . . . ’

9 Sep 2017

‘The magazine has been a joy to receive . . .’

M. Ward, Northampton

‘Many thanks for your letter confirming my subscription renewal to Slightly Foxed. Looking back it seems I first subscribed in 2007 – where did those 10 years go?! In all that time the magazine has been a joy to receive (no hyperbole), and it is also a pleasure to know that there are people (yourselves!), who would wish to publish such a magazine . . .’

16 Sep 2017

A Blazing Talent

Diana Raymond on the works of Pamela Frankau

How well is Pamela Frankau remembered? She was born on 3 January 1908, so last year was her centenary. But . . . no garlands? No memorials? No flourish in the literary pages? Well, Pamela would be the first to look on this with wry amusement, and without complaint . . .

A Late Victorian Afternoon

Mark Jones on Mollie Panter-Downes, At the Pines

They seemed reasonable enough requests. Don’t lie on the bed naked in case passing servants catch an eyeful. Also, in mixed company, could he try to swear only in French? Modest pleas made by Theodore Watts-Dunton to the poet and ex-libertine Algernon Charles Swinburne when they first set up home together. It was 1879 and Swinburne’s relish for brandy and flagellation had reached a critical point. In the nick of time, Watts-Dunton, the gallant walrus-moustached solicitor-turned-author, had plucked his friend from the depths and carried him off for a spot of detox in Putney.

‘It’s such a great present!’

E. Wedmore, London

‘Dear Foxed Quarterly, Thanks so much for making the ordering process so easy. I bought the September issue at Dulwich Books to give with the subscription and once I looked inside, had a really hard time resisting the temptation to just keep going. It’s such a great present . . .’

27 Sep 2017

‘There is something magical, calming and restorative . . .’

C. Fox, Oxford

‘Dear Gail and Hazel, Of course I shall be renewing my subscriptions and adding another for my brother! There is something magical, calming and restorative in your quarterly magazine. Is it perfection of format and print and illustration or choice of contribution, varied and surprising and always beautifully written? Or is it simply that you reflect my interests and experiences. . .’

‘I have stumbled into an oasis . . .’

J. Stuart-Smith, Gwynedd

‘Dear Slightly Foxed, my initial subscription was an early Christmas present to myself last year, and now I can’t imagine being without it so I must carry on. It feels like I have stumbled into an oasis of a half forgotten civilization. Long may you prosper . . .’

‘You’ve added another fan to your list!’

A. Hetzler, United States

‘Hello! I just wanted to thank you for the copy of Slightly Foxed that you recently sent me from your Instagram giveaway. Your magazine is new to me and I have been enjoying it thoroughly, not just the interesting articles and fantastic writing, but the beautiful journal itself . . . ’

‘I am enchanted . . .’

S. Rathet, United States

‘Hello friends at Slightly Foxed. How is it possible I have not heard of you before? I subscribe to the LRB, have been to the UK many times, read Persephone books, buy many British magazines at Barnes & Noble, etc. etc. (I really make an effort) but only stumbled across your website today when looking up the book A House in Flanders . . .’

7 Feb 2017

‘A most excellent magazine . . .’

R. Grant, Dorset

‘As I have said many times since first subscribing, this is a most excellent magazine and you are all doing a worthwhile and amazing job in the world of books . . .’

2 Feb 2018

Print! Tearing It Up

Somerset House explores the power of print by celebrating the past and present of Britain’s thriving independent magazine scene. Print! Tearing It Up will be the first exhibition to trace the journey of independent voices in magazines and journals from their roots in the early 20th century to today’s contemporary titles.

Until 22 August 2018
Somerset House, London
Free entry

June News: Noises and Places

Summer is now in full swing here at Slightly Foxed. The new issue of the quarterly has travelled far and wide to subscribers all over the globe, and whether you too are off to far-flung places this summer, or simply staying at home, we hope you’ll find it good company.

In this month’s newsletter we’re celebrating fathers and grandfathers with Denis Constanduros’s charming memoirs, My Grandfather and Father, Dear Father, published together for the first time as our 20th Slightly Foxed Edition. Do read on for an extract from this charming book, and a few suggestions for presents for this coming Father’s Day or, indeed, for any occasion.

North West Book Fairs

Slightly Foxed Subscriber Benefits

Slightly Foxed subscribers receive free entry to the book fairs on presenting their membership card . . .

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

‘The lure of reading it overcame my good intentions . . .’

J. Harwood Gregson, Canada

‘I was going to write and thank you for my summer edition of SF when it arrived well . . . however the lure of reading it overcame my good intentions.’

3 Jun 2017

‘Foxed is an essential part of my life!’

M. Thomas, New York

‘I recently received a mailing from you that led to the inference that my subscription has lapsed. This was never my intention. Foxed is an essential part of my life . . .’

13 May 2017

‘Slightly Foxed has become a necessary part of my life . . ’

M. Udal, Surrey

‘Dear Gail and Hazel, Slightly Foxed has become a necessary part of my life. The consistency of your publication is entirely admirable . . .’

7 Jul 2017

‘Delicious . . .’

W. Hill, Herefordshire

‘Dear foxy people, Oh! Dear me — all the jobs that don’t get done because a new copy of Slightly Foxed has arrived! Delicious . . .’

Chapter VIII ‘A Few Oughts’

Denis Constanduros

Some of my grandfather’s quotations from Dickens were developed and amplified into the form of small dramatic performances in which the whole table took part and gave their allotted responses. There was one special favourite from The Pickwick Papers which went, as…

‘Quite simply a delight . . .’

D. Jennings, Manchester

‘Dear Slightly Foxed, I look both Ms Mantel and Mr Bell away with me. I wasn’t sure how I’d get on with Giving up the Ghost but I found her view on memory very interesting. How right she is too that . . . ’

7 Aug 2017

‘So pleased to see my Slightly Foxed shelf growing . . .’

J. Hamlin, USA

‘My order arrived yesterday evening! I’m delighted and can’t wait to dig into the lovely books, and so pleased to see my Slightly Foxed shelf growing and growing . . .’

4 Jan 2018

‘My wife is delighted with her present . . .’

A. Bruce, New Zealand

‘My wife is delighted with her present. Thank you for your assistance is getting the present put together and out here in time for Christmas . . .’

‘I look forward to introducing my grandchildren to the Careys . . .’

M. Orr, Surrey

‘Thank you very much for The Road to Waterloo which arrived safely this morning – just as I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms after finishing the series . . .’

‘My kind of books!’

L. Williams, United States

‘I appreciate your close attention to my order. Can’t wait for my first copy!’

27 Apr 2018

‘Lifted our reading horizons . . .’

S. and M. Erber, New Zealand

‘A great publication and one which has lifted our reading horizons more than somewhat . . . ’

29 May 2018

Cooling off – Dunvegan

Kathleen Lindsley

‘Reading Haldane has transformed the way I understand the Highlands. He taught me how to follow on foot the routes of the drove roads, and to look for the patches of open ground that would have been the “stances” of the drovers: the resting-places, close to water and on level ground, where the men could sleep and the livestock could graze. And he introduced me to the drovers themselves: these hard men, the long-distance lorry-drivers of their day, accustomed to the boredoms and rigours of their journeys, and equipped with internalized sat-navs of astonishing accuracy. They navigated not from maps but from memories, stories and gossip . . .’

‘Who could not be inspired . . ?’

G. Chessel, Northumberland

‘Who could not be inspired by the treasures you give us in Slightly Foxed? I have been reminded so often of books that I read in the past and now have the pleasure of encountering again . . .’

31 May 2018

Bookshop of the Quarter: Summer 2018

The Suffolk Anthology is an independent bookshop in Cheltenham, named for the bustling Suffolks area in which it sits. Helene Hewett set up shop in 2015, and we’re pleased to say that Slightly Foxed has adorned its shelves from the very beginning. Since opening, the bookshop has flourished, gaining a loyal following of regular customers, as well as attracting passing visitors.

Slightly Foxed feature on the Halfman, Halfbook Blogspot

Halfman, Halfbook

For me, independent publishers are the people in the industry who are prepared to take risks on new authors and books where the larger players either don’t wish to venture, or where they can’t see there being a return on.…

May News: A kind of Englishness

Greetings once more from No. 53 Hoxton Square. The turn of the quarter is almost upon us and we have the pressing – and cheering – business of good reading to report. The cream pages of the summer issue of Slightly Foxed, No. 58: ‘A Snatch of Morning’, have rolled off the printing presses up at Smith Settle, been pressed, nipped, trimmed, sewn and bound, and then lovingly stuffed into handsome (and ecologically friendly) sturdy brown envelopes and bundled into postbags to begin their journey around the world . . . And we’re off to Brensham with our 42nd Slightly Foxed Edition, The Blue Field, and a snippet of Sarah Perry’s lovely preface by way of introduction.

‘Portrait of Elmbury was fun and quite vivid . . .’

D. Jennings, Manchester

‘Portrait of Elmbury was fun and quite vivid, and moving too . . .’

25 Aug 2017

‘One of the most wonderful books I’ve ever read . . .’

M. Woledge, Australia

‘I wanted to let you know that I ordered Portrait of Elmbury based on the review and excerpts in SF. I’ve just finished it and have to say that this was one of the most wonderful books I’ve ever read, so thank you for being the conduit to my discovery! I grew up on a farm in rural Australia in the 1970s and 1980s, which is a far cry from 1920s and 1930s rural England and yet . . .’

‘Wonderful and prompt service . . . ’

G. Joly, Gloucestershire

‘Dear Slightly Foxed Team, Thank you so much for such wonderful and prompt service. The recipient (and his parents) were thrilled . . .’

25 Jan 2018

‘I enjoy every issue . . .’

A. Zwack, Italy

‘I enjoy every issue and have every single one since you started. They are scattered all over the house . . .’

19 Mar 2018

‘A Source of Great Pleasure . . .’

G. Rubinstein, Australia

‘We love Slightly Foxed. I remember very clearly the day I first read about the quarterly and thought “I think I would like that . . .”’

10 May 2018

‘Marvellous stuff . . .’

B. Turner, Canada

‘While I am not purchasing today, I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed books I bought from you. They include A House in Flanders, and Marrying Out. Marvellous stuff. Thank you, from a fan in Canada.’ B. Turner, Canada

24 May 2018

‘Thanks for all the delights . . .’

B. Lees, Hampshire

‘I have just read your newsletter with pleasure as always, and was particularly pleased to read again the article about Tom’s Midnight Garden; it has been one of my favourite books since I started reading it to my children. The other delight that you have started giving us are BB’s books . . .’

15 Dec 2017

‘These new editions are exquisite . . .’

J. Charles, Australia

‘I just wanted to let you know how thrilled I was to receive my set of Ronald Welch books earlier this week. These new editions are exquisite – simply wonderful to hold, feel, smell and browse through. Thank you so much for bringing these superb books back into print. I can’t wait to start . . .’

5 May 2018

‘A big thank you to Slightly Foxed . . .’

C. Diekman, Australia

‘I am looking forward to receiving the set, having read my first Ronald Welch novel as a very young boy in the late 1960s leading to a life long interest in history and historical fiction. I have been collecting Ronald Welch books for some time, but these are becoming more fragile with age . . . ’

Sprouts and Parsnip Wine

Sarah Perry on John Moore, The Blue Field

Early one morning, late in July, the villagers of ‘crack-brained Brensham’ woke to a remarkable spectacle. There amid the customary colours of furze and wheat was a seven-acre field that ‘had suddenly become tinctured with the colour of Mediterranean skies’. Nothing like it had ever happened before, so that the villagers caught their breath at the sight of this miracle: a great, vivid patch of cerulean ‘so clear and pure that it made one think of eyes or skies’ . . .

Coombe Bissett Down

Howard Phipps

‘A bossy lender will record the deed in an imposing ledger or demand a deposit, but will then get a reputation for meanness. You may stick in handsome personalized Ex Libris bookplates, all beautifully engraved and perhaps slyly pretending to be your family’s coat of arms, but your shelves will be stripped bare as soon as word gets round the community of avid and unscrupulous collectors of bookplates . . .’

Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2018

Submissions for The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2018 have now closed, and the shortlist has been announced. The prize of £2,500 will be awarded to the best book by a first-time biographer at a party in London.

Wood Engraving, Peregrine

C. F. Tunnicliffe

‘I was simply searching for the best writing on birds when I came across J. A. Baker’s The Peregrine (1967) – a book that isn’t so much the ‘best’ as the only writing of its kind on the subject . . . ’ Annabel Walker introduced us to J.A. Baker, his book and its powerful subject in issue 45 of Slightly Foxed. Her article was illustrated by this wood engraving by C. F. Tunnicliffe.

Divine Spark

Emma Hogan on Muriel Spark

I first came across Spark when working in a little second-hand bookshop off the Charing Cross Road. A battered tome of her selected works was on sale in the outside pile, desolately stationed there to be picked over by tourists and dampened by rain. Not having much to do (the shop closed a month later, not necessarily because I’d worked there) I started reading one afternoon, and was hooked. For while Muriel Spark makes you laugh out loud, she also makes you think – she must, I feel, have been a formidable dinner-party companion, quietly sitting there with her razor-sharp tongue . . .

Laura, Louisa and Me

Daisy Hay on her childhood reading

The Child that Books Built is the title of a memoir by Francis Spufford which explores the impact of books read in childhood by interspersing an account of Spufford’s own reading with excursions into history, philosophy and psychology. It beautifully articulates the formative nature of childhood literary exploration. ‘The words we take into ourselves help to shape us,’ Spufford writes. ‘They help form the questions we think are worth asking; they shift around the boundaries of the sayable inside us . . . They build and stretch and build again the chambers of our imagination.’

May News: Laura, Lousia and Me

Inspired by our contributor Sarah Perry and our fellow booklovers Lucy Mangan and Damian Barr (see the body of the newsletter to enter the draw for tickets to a special Literary Salon event at The Savoy featuring Sarah and Lucy next month) and by Lucy’s recent memoir Bookworm, we’re revisiting some favourite childhood reading with Daisy Hay, in her piece from Slightly Foxed Issue 32. Happy reading.

Strangely Like Real Life

Grant McIntyre on Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time

My own prime favourite is Anthony Powell’s sequence of novels A Dance to the Music of Time: panoramic, sharply observed, farcical, ironic, yet shot through with what Kingsley Amis called an endlessly inquisitive melancholy. We shadow the narrator Nick Jenkins from the callow half-understanding of youth, in the Twenties, through the drastic remaking of lives and relationships by war, to late middle age in the heady Sixties and Seventies – a whole new age of absurdity against which the novel’s various endgames are played out . . .

Slightly Foxed Readers’ Day 2018

This year’s Readers’ Day took place on Friday 9 November. Our speakers were: Edmund Gordon; Tom Hodgkinson; Penelope Lively; Miranda Seymour and Angie Lewin and Christopher Brown from St Jude’s.

Edmund Gordon shortlisted for Locus Award

We are delighted to hear that Edmund Gordon, winner of the 2017 Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize for The Invention of Angela Carter has been shortlisted for the non-fiction category in this year’s Locus Awards.

April News: The Call of the Sea

Inspired by the call of the sea, for this week’s newsletter we dived into the Slightly Foxed archives and fished around for something suitably watery. We floated past some very good pieces on Swallows and Amazons (Issue 18), Patrick O’Brian (Issues 40, 42, 44) and The Compleat Angler (Issue 54), but we were looking for something a little more unusual. A few more kicks and there it was: nineteenth-century fisherman on the east coast of Scotland, a lost love and plenty of adventure. So off we go to sea, with Galen O’Hanlon on Neil M. Gunn’s The Silver Darlings.

Slightly Foxed at Sea Fever Festival

North Norfolk’s Festival of Poetry and Prose, 11–12 May 2018

Sea Fever aims to celebrate all forms of the written word inspired by this exceptional coast-line, and to bring to the coast writers with national reputations.

Our Editors, Gail Pirkis and Hazel Wood, took their audience of festival-goers behind the scenes at Slightly Foxed on a sunny Saturday in May.

Book Spines

John Watson

These beautiful book spines by John Watson first appeared on the contents page of issue 54 of Slightly Foxed, and we liked them so much we wanted to share them with our readers around the world. Now, if you order a gift-wrapped present for a fellow book-lover, we’ll tie it up with our signature foxed ribbon, and hand-write your personal message on a handsome gift tag bearing this wood engraving.

A Date with Iris

A. F. Harrold on Iris Murdoch

Some years ago a couple of friends were running a speed-dating event at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature and, being short of male participants and knowing I was performing at the festival that weekend, they asked if I could help…

The Tea & Tattle Podcast: A Chat With Slightly Foxed Editors

Slightly Foxed Editors Gail and Hazel talk to Miranda Mills on the Tea & Tattle podcast ‘This week, I’m joined by Gail Pirkis and Hazel Wood, the founders and editors of the literary journal and publishing company, Slightly Foxed. I’m…

March News: That unsettling misunderstanding over the eggs

For this newsletter we’re travelling to Cairo with a young Priscilla Napier to investigate an unsettling egg-related incident in an extract from A Late Beginner, introduced by Penelope Lively whose latest memoir – Life in the Garden – is one of our favourite books published in recent months. Please read on for an extract and, to follow, a few spring reading ideas, some missives from readers and new subscriber offers from Foxed Friends.

April Snow Showers

Kathleen Lindsley

‘In his spare time, Calum carves rabbits and squirrels from pieces of wood. He doesn’t question his position in life, longing only to be free with the birds in the trees.’ Julian Hoffman introduces us to The Cone-Gatherers – two…

Slightly Foxed on the Stack Podcast: Hear how Slightly Foxed turned their passion for books into a sustainable business . . .

‘This week’s episode of the Stack podcast comes with a warning: If you feel like you have too much stuff to read, do not buy a copy of Slightly Foxed magazine. The literary title launched 15 years ago as an antidote…

The Call of the Sea

Galen O’Hanlon on Neil M. Gunn, The Silver Darlings

It’s a wonderful thing when a book so fires the imagination that it becomes more real than the world around you, when the mind is totally absorbed, the page dissolves, and you begin to exist differently. It was mainly a thing of long childhood summers, when I was a musketeer, then a Viking, a wizard, a centaur – once even a quickfooted warrior mouse. Sadly it stopped in adolescence, when these things weren’t done . . .

Pigs

Ian Stephens

‘“Those are good pigs,” he said, “aren’t they?”
If he had said they were bad pigs I should have agreed with him equally. Their shape meant nothing to me.
“Good length,” he explained, “broad in the back and not too much head.”
I strove to see it, but no person can appreciate the points of a pig till he has dwelt long with them.
Looking back, I cannot tell at what point I began to know a good pig from a bad one. The farmer’s eye is as subtle as the artist’s.’

The Lost Words Exhibition

*This exhibition closed on 6 May 2018*

The relationship between language and the living world is celebrated in this exhibition of poetry and illustration. The Lost Words is a unique collaborative project between the award-winning author and Slightly Foxed contributor Robert Macfarlane, and acclaimed artist and author Jackie Morris, that seeks to reconnect people with the natural world.

Slightly Foxed Subscribers’ Writing Competition 2018

The Slightly Foxed Writers’ Competition produced a record number of entries this year, all of them worth reading. Subjects tackled were many and various, from Dr Johnson to taxidermy, and we had such difficulty choosing a winner that we finally opted to award a joint first prize . . .

15 Nov 2017

Bookshop of the Quarter: Spring 2018

As we look towards bright spring days here in Hoxton Square, we find our minds turn to warmer climes, and particularly to Book/Shop in Oakland, a beautiful space that’s lined with books and flooded with light.

‘This was an exceptional shortlist . . .’

Sam Leith, The Spectator

‘I had the privilege – alongside the wise and learned Caroline Moorehead and Ian Kelly – of helping judge this year’s Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize, which was last night awarded to Edmund Gordon for his superb The Invention of Angela Carter . . . This was an exceptional shortlist, in which every book showed not only thorough knowledge of its subject but deep and sympathetic understanding. And from the Tudor court, to the battlefields of the first world war, from a busy obs/gynae ward on the NHS to the august halls of the National Gallery, from a book-lined study to a Japanese love-hotel, we were thoroughly immersed in the worlds these books inhabit.’

12 Mar 2018

A Flickering on the Staircase

Maggie Fergusson on Hilary Mantel, Giving up the Ghost

In 1994, Hilary Mantel joined the Council of the Royal Society of Literature, where I was working as Secretary. She was in her midforties, and her sinister and hilarious fourth novel, Fludd, had been a big hit with our President,…

March News: A beautiful mother who adored him

Greetings from Hoxton Square where the new quarter’s usual delightful flurry of orders is keeping the office foxes on their toes. Ordinarily we send out a newsletter just once a month, so you may be wondering why you’ve now received two in fairly swift succession. Well, in last week’s missive we rashly promised we’d be in touch again soon with some further suggestions for Mothering Sunday presents. We suspect that most of you have been extremely well-organised and have already placed your orders by now, but we did promise so if you are in need of some last-minute ideas you’ll find a few suggestions in this newsletter . . .

Bart van Es wins The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize for The Cut Out Girl

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Biographers’ Club Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2018 is Bart van Es for The Cut Out Girl.

Edmund Gordon wins The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize for The Invention of Angela Carter

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Biographers’ Club Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2017 is Edmund Gordon for The Invention of Angela Carter.

February News: Collar as Dawn. Back as Snowdrop.

Meteorologically speaking, we are still deep in mid-winter, but here at Slightly Foxed the new quarter waits not for the weather, so we are delighted to announce that it is now, officially, spring. Thanks to the sterling work of Tracey and her team at Smith Settle printers in Yorkshire, the new issue of the quarterly: No. 57, ‘A Crowning Achievement’, is now on its way to readers all around the world. Whether you make the most of the inclement weather and curl up in a favourite chair to devour it immediately or wait for a fair day for some al fresco reading, we do hope you’ll enjoy its typically eclectic collection of good writing and good reading . . .

Pussy Willow

Yvonne Skargon

We’re celebrating blue skies and sunshine this morning as Spring seems to have finally arrived. There are crocuses sprouting in Hoxton Square, and yellow tulips brightening up our office. These spring catkins by Yvonne Skargon first appeared in Slightly Foxed Issue 29, where they adorned the contents page.

Cover Artist: Issue 58, Debbie George, ‘Forget me not’

Debbie George has been a painter for over twenty years. Her work is a celebration of her passion for flowers and the objects with which she surrounds herself. She finds inspiration in many forms, ranging from ceramics and plants to books and wallpaper, textiles and landscape. Assembling flowers or objects within the foreground of a painting and setting them against a variety of backdrops, Debbie builds up layers of paint that create a wonderful luminosity and depth.

Cover Artist: Issue 57, Luke Martineau, ‘Westminster, Afternoon Light’ (detail)

Luke Martineau, ‘Westminster, Afternoon Light’ (detail) Luke Martineau was educated at Eton and Oxford and then studied briefly at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London before beginning to paint professionally. His versatile output encompasses portraiture, landscape, still life…

Cover Artist: Issue 56, Clare Curtis, ‘The Thought Fox’, linocut

Clare Curtis, ‘The Thought Fox’, linocut Clare has worked in print, design and illustration for over twenty years. The craft of drawing and printing are as important to her as the strong design, patterns and beautiful colour combinations that you’ll…

January News: Beside the Folly Brook

A belated happy New Year to you all from No. 53 Hoxton Square. January at Slightly Foxed is a time of great activity as, with set jaws and the kettle on a permanent rolling boil, we turn to the annual task of ‘proof-reading the database’. . . We’ll be in touch again next month with more news of the coming quarter’s issue and books but for now, let’s meet at the Folly Brook with ‘BB’ and his Little Grey Men.

Somerset Garden

Miriam McGregor

‘She rises still. A region must be found unhaunted by birds, that else might profane the mystery. She rises still; and already the ill-assorted troop below are dwindling and falling asunder. The feeble, infirm, the aged, unwelcome, ill fed, who have flown from inactive or impoverished cities – these renounce the pursuit and disappear in the void. Only a small, indefatigable cluster remain, suspended in infinite opal. She summons her wings for one final effort; and now the chosen of incomprehensible forces has reached her, has seized her, and, bounding aloft with united impetus, the ascending spiral of their intertwined flight whirls for one second in the hostile madness of love.’

The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize Shortlist 2017

The shortlist for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2017 has been announced. The Prize of £2,500 will be awarded on 6 March with a drinks reception at The Library Club, St Martin’s Lane.

Pernod & Gitanes

Charlie Lee-Potter on Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse

I love the fact that Sagan blew her £75 advance for Bonjour Tristesse on whisky and a chic black sweater. But she got the last laugh, and plenty more jumpers, because the novel was eventually translated into twenty languages, sold 2 million copies and was made into a film starring David Niven and Deborah Kerr . . .

When the Clock Struck Thirteen

Maggie Fergusson on Philippa Pearce, Tom’s Midnight Garden

A lot of the stories I loved most as a child involved doors. Aged about 4, I suppose, I passed through the small, latched door in the hillside, into Mrs Tiggywinkle’s flagged kitchen, filled with the ‘nice, hot, singey smell’ of ironing, busy and reassuring. A few years later came the doors into Narnia, the Secret Garden and Wonderland, Bilbo Baggins’s ‘perfectly round’ green door with its shiny yellow brass knob ‘in the exact middle’, the door into the Yellow Dwarf ’s home in the orange tree, and the dark door into Bluebeard’s bloody chamber . . .

But reading to my own children, the door I’ve been happiest to pass through again is the door into Tom’s Midnight Garden – a door one can only imagine because, unlike most of the others, it is never described.

Uncomfortable Truths

Diana Athill on W. G. Sebald, Austerlitz

There is no book more haunting than W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz. I would not advise anyone unfamiliar with his earlier books to make it their introduction to his work, because his decision to do away, in this one, with paragraphs, and the way in which the narrative unfolds, are disconcerting enough when first encountered to be off-putting. It is necessary to make an act of trust – to put yourself in his hands; and this may be a problem for anyone who has not yet learned to trust him by reading his wonderful The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn and Vertigo. I doubt whether I would have persisted beyond the first thirty-odd pages of Austerlitz if I hadn’t already learned that wherever Sebald led, I must follow him . . .

1 Dec 2010

December News: Winter Reading from Slightly Foxed

The last few months have whipped past in a flurry of ribbon, brown paper, gift cards and books as Anna, Jennie, Katy, Olivia and Hattie (with help from extra elf Izzie) have worked like mad things to get everything packed up and posted out…

Putting up Useful Shelves

Sue Gee on Richard Kennedy, A Boy at the Hogarth Press & A Parcel of Time

In 1922, Richard Kennedy’s formidable grandmother pulled a well-connected string and got him a scholarship to Marlborough. To say that Kennedy’s education up to this point had been patchy is an understatement. As he describes it in his childhood memoir…

Bookshop of the Quarter: Winter 2017

Belgravia Books of London is an independent bookshop run by an independent publisher, so it is no wonder that Slightly Foxed has sat proudly on its shelves since it opened its doors six years ago.

November News: No Book Without A Foreword

There are subscriptions to arrange, presents to be wrapped, renewals to attend to and office puppies to be walked, so we’ll leave you in peace to read an extract from the new Slightly Foxed Edition: No. 40, When I Was a Little Boy, a charming and poignant memoir by the author of the well-loved children’s classic Emil & The Detectives, Erich Kästner.

Winter 2017 Launch Party

Slightly Foxed & Belgravia Books

We celebrated the publication of Slightly Foxed Issue 56 and When I Was a Little Boy.

There were books galore, plenty of wine and many Christmas presents purchased on the night.

Our readers write . . .

J.W. Wilkens, The Netherlands

‘Thanks for my free copy of Slightly Foxed. It arrived just before the weekend. I visited the website, subscribed to the mailing and am gradually falling in love with the stuff you have on offer.’ J.W. Wilkens, The Netherlands

24 Jul 2016

Hisham Matar wins The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis

Hisham Matar, winner of the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2016, has won another international literary prize. The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis was initiated in 1980 by the State Association of Bavaria in the Stock Market Society of the German Book Trade and the city of Munich . . .

19 Oct 2017

Beclouded

Paul Kershaw

‘They fly free from every page, carrying the salt breeze and the sound of the waves with them . . . The author was very much a field naturalist, and accordingly British Sea Birds takes you where its author went, out among the birds, into their world. Gibson-Hill’s birds, captured in his fresh, lucid prose and exquisite photographs, are not dead specimens, anatomized by a detached scientific gaze.’

The Three Mothers

Judith Jaidinger

‘One image of a veiled woman was all net and nose. Then, by laying down carefully pared pieces of onion-skin tissue-paper behind the place where the impression would be made, Brian brought out and made visible the expression of traumatized, envious sympathy the artist had engraved into the wood in her depiction of the woman’s face. It slowly came alive at his touch – though Brian would pass the credit back to the artist who created the picture. I suppose he is right; but his contribution is closer to that of a concert pianist interpreting a score than that of an engineer.’

‘Sword of Bone charmed me utterly . . .’

Colin Fisher

‘Sword of Bone charmed me utterly. If I apply the tried-and-tested dinner party criteria of ‘Would I invite the author?’ the answer is a resounding yes. Anthony Rhodes’s tone is laconic, cultured, ironic and witty. A reader could dip at random into the book and come up with a bon mot or two . . .’

September News: Bloomsbury Blue

Our shelves may be somewhat overloaded but they’re firmly rooted to the floor so as to avoid any shelf-related disasters of the Hogarth Press variety . . . Do read on for an extract from this wonderful book and to follow, details of the new season’s offerings.

‘It brought back to me all the magical delight that my mother and I shared . . .’

J.C.

‘I have just opened my newly delivered Slightly Foxed and gone straight to the article about The Little Grey Men and Down the Bright Stream. It has brought back to me all the magical delight that my mother and I shared in reading them together. We had no hollow oak on our land but how I longed to live in one. Such yearnings don’t quite go away! I have just ordered the pair from SF. (Books that is, not hollow oaks).’

A New England: Tewkesbury

P.C. Dettman, The Z Review

Once in a while, a special book reaches out through the wisps of time and demands to be read. John Moore’s Portrait of Elmbury was written in 1945 and recalls his corner of England during the first world war. It documents a country that was changing by the minute, a country that would never be the same again, for better or for worse . . .

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Ian Stephens

Today’s featured wood engraving for Woodcut Wednesday is a ‘Great Spotted Woodpecker’ by Ian Stephens. It first appeared in Issue 51 of Slightly Foxed, where we featured a series of birds engraved by Ian.

Autumn

Simon Brett

We’re not busying ourselves with harvest this autumn, but with books to be packed, proofs to be checked, and new office puppies to be played with (of which, more news coming soon . . .) we might just need a rest under the apple tree by the end of the day. This is ‘Autumn’ by Simon Brett, which first appeared on the contents page of Slightly Foxed Issue 19.

A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book: Preface

Philip Rhys Evans

I had thought of keeping a commonplace book for many years. In my library at home I had gradually collected a few classic examples, such as Maurice Baring’s Have You Anything to Declare?, John Murray’s A Gentleman Publisher’s Commonplace Book…

This is a story about the last gnomes in Britain . . .

BB, The Little Grey Men

This is a story about the last gnomes in Britain. They are honest-to-goodness gnomes, none of your baby, fairy-book tinsel stuff, and they live by hunting and fishing, like the animals and birds, which is only proper and right . . .

If you have read The Little Grey Men you will know all about Oak Tree House and the Stream People . . .

BB, Down the Bright Stream

If you have read The Little Grey Men you will know all about Oak Tree House and the Stream People, and how three gnomes – Dodder (a lame gnome), Baldmoney and Sneezewort – went up the Folly Brook to look for their lost brother Cloudberry, and how they discovered him, after many adventures, fit and well and full of high spirits . . .

From the Farmhouse Window

Melissa Harrison on Adrian Bell, Silver Ley

The middle volume of Adrian Bell’s inter-war farming trilogy, Silver Ley (1931), is, in its quiet, unassuming way, the most poignant memoir I think I have ever read. Picking up where his first book Corduroy left off, it opens in 1921 as Bell wakes up for the very first time on his own Suffolk farm, full of hope, with two newly bought heavy horses, Darkie and Dewdrop, stamping in the yard . . .

The Capon Tree

Angela Lemaire

‘The landscapes have such presence and resonance and charisma. I remember now that I liked to take this book with me on the remaining family holidays of my teenage years and in the hot, empty geometry of sky and swimming…

Autumn 2017 Launch Party

Slightly Foxed at Much Ado Books

We celebrated the launch of our autumn publications in the beautiful barn of Much Ado Books on a Saturday evening in September. Wine flowed, bookish chat filled the air, books flew off the shelves and tills rang as we toasted our new seasonal offerings.

Bookshop of the Quarter: Autumn 2017

Much Ado Books is an independent bookshop in Afriston, run by Cate Olsen and Nash Robbins, two Americans who decided to sell both new and old books in a medieval village in the heart of the Cuckmere Valley.

‘Like a child in a sweet shop . . .’

N. Law, Suffolk

‘I recently bought four books from you with the intention of giving them away for Christmas. That will still happen but rather like a child in a sweet shop I have read them all myself first. Particularly enjoyed Christabel Bielenberg’s account on life in Nazi Germany.’ N. Law, Suffolk

18 Nov 0201

Cover Artist: Issue 55, Jemma Lewis, Hand-marbled paper, ‘Bloomsbury Blue & Orange Botanical’

After graduating in Textile Art in Norwich Jemma Lewis worked for several years at a local bookbinding firm where she became fascinated with the marbled papers found on the binding of antiquarian books. She set up her own marbling business in 2009 and now works with her husband Craig in a purpose-built log cabin in their garden in Wiltshire. Their marbled papers are created by using traditional techniques, floating gouache paints on to a ‘size’ of carragheen moss, an Irish seaweed. They produce collections of both traditional and contemporary marbled papers, and often combine the two, using a modern-day palette to update historic designs.

An important plan . . .

Anthony Rhodes, Sword of Bone

During the afternoon of 27 May we were warned that a conference of all officers would be held at 6.30 that evening at which the colonel, who had just received instructions from the general, would unfold an important plan . . .

Footbridge at Bishopstone

Howard Phipps

‘I left the A303 and followed the A30 down a dead straight Roman road to Stockbridge then along the old drover’s road towards Salisbury. I began to recognise the distinctive local features, the gentle rolling hills, the trees silhouetted against the sky, and I knew I was entering Phipps country.’

August News: Dunkirk – An unofficial history

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the book of the film is usually rather better than the film itself, as Jane Austen certainly never said, but we like to think she would agree. Having not yet seen Christopher Nolan’s latest cinematic offering, Dunkirk, we shall have to reserve judgement on this occasion, but we can be absolutely certain that as memoirs from the Second World War go, and especially those related to Dunkirk, Anthony Rhodes’s Sword of Bone is outstanding.

Through the Woods

Agnes Miller Parker

‘They shut the road through the woods/ Seventy years ago./ Weather and rain have undone it again,/ And now you would never know/ There was once a road through the woods . . .’

Daisies

Ian Stephens

These cheerful daisies adorned the contents page of Slightly Foxed Issue 38, Summer 2013. Ian Stephens was born in North Buckinghamshire in 1940. He studied illustration and lettering at Northampton School of Art and started engraving immediately on leaving . . .

‘A fascinating book . . .’

G.R. Seamons, Peterborough

‘I was thrilled to read Country Boy as I have been researching my family in Hardwick-cum-Weedon for about forty years – and had no idea that the book existed! I enjoyed the book hugely . . .’

28 Jul 2017

‘A joy to read, to look at and handle’ . . .

B. Berkeley-Hill, Kent

‘When I got my last polite subscription reminder from you before Christmas . . . not only did I renew but I ordered two of your beautiful limited editions – 84, Charing Cross Road and The Real Mrs Miniver. I’m so very glad that I did . . . ‘

28 Jan 2016

‘May I say how delighted I am . . .’

M. Bell, Angus

‘I have just received the three volumes that I ordered, Mr Tibbits’s Catholic School, Terms & Conditions and The Real Mrs Miniver. May I say how delighted I am with both the production and the quality of the items. As a long-term devotee of your magazine Slightly Foxed, I shall certainly be making further requests of your books in the future.’

5 Mar 2017

‘Knight Crusader is beautifully written . . .’

Random Jottings

The Carey Novels by Ronald Welch Slightly Foxed is one of life’s most wonderful pleasures. Their quarterly is always full of fascinating and interesting articles on books past and present and their own published books are also quirky and lovely…

‘Look Back with Love is a lovely, lovely, lovely book . . . ’

Random Jottings

Look back with Love – Dodie Smith A couple of years ago I reviewed a book called Kisses on a Postcard. I started the post by saying ‘this is a lovely lovely book’. I felt that was the only way I…

Aldeburgh Beach

Howard Phipps

Branwen Lucas explores the towns, villages and coast of Suffolk with Julian Tennyson’s Suffolk Scene, a ‘sparkling record of his love affair with this often neglected part of East Anglia’. Her article ‘Silly Suffolk’ appeared in Slightly Foxed Issue 23, and was illustrated by wonderful wood engravings of the county by Howard Phipps. This is the beach at Aldeburgh, Tennyson’s best-loved town.

‘Excellent choice of contributors . . .’

P. Eastlake, Northumberland

‘I have just been reorganizing my library at home; not enough shelf space and totally disorganized. Now my SF magazines and books are in order on two shelves. This got me re-reading SF magazine no. 1; it brought back all the memories of when I got that first edition from you. I promptly went on to ABE Books and ordered second-hand copies of . . . ‘

26 Nov 2013

‘Beautiful, well produced, well written . . .’

S. Belcher, Cardiff

‘Thanks for sending me the Alan Moorehead book. It’s the first one I’ve bought from Slightly Foxed and I am so impressed with its production. I also bought the Hilary Mantel memoir which I will be reading next. I’m hooked. Beautiful, well produced, well written. What’s not to like? Keep up the magnificent work.’

9 Mar 2017

‘My idea of heaven . . .’

A. Conran, USA

‘A friend gave me A Late Education for Christmas a few years ago and I loved it. Sitting in bed on Boxing day with a perfect book was my idea of heaven. She now gives me an edition every Christmas and I really look forward to my Christmas read.’

26 Jul 2016

‘Keep up the good work . . .’

A. Hill, West Sussex

‘I’ve been meaning to enthuse in writing about your magazine and books for some time now. Just finished The Flame Trees of Thika and found it riveting, a wonderful evocation of the sights and sounds of Africa. Alan Moorehead is next…

26 Jul 2013

‘You are a beacon of civilisation . . .’

G. Kerr

‘I just wanted to include a quick note with my subscription renewal to say how highly I regard the publication. For me you are a beacon of civilisation in a world increasingly hostile to the book lover . . .

26 Jul 2013

‘A warm glow of contentment . . .’

T. Wintringham, New Zealand

‘I absolutely loved Brensham Village. It is one of those books that gives the reader such a warm glow of contentment, in part because of the characters but also because of the beautiful observations and writing. Thank you for publishing it!’

7 Sep 2016

‘Thank you once again for republishing these great books . . .’

F. Marsh, Norfolk

‘Thank you to all at Slightly Foxed for the full set of Ronald Welch’s Carey novels you have produced over the last couple of years. I am enjoying working my way through them again and am very pleased to have finally completed my collection of these wonderful historical novels after 45 years. . .’

For readers ‘who, like me, enjoy historical battles and will treasure these books . . . ’

Noah Nikolai Absari

‘The book Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch tells the story of a young Squire called Philip who (later on in the book) becomes a knight . . .’

‘Here’s to good reading . . .’

E. Hanson, USA

‘I’m sorry to say that I never made it to your office in Hoxton Square while visiting London back in March, but I have purchased two of your wonderful Slightly Foxed editions. They are lovely and the quality is what I expected it would be. I plan on ordering more books in the near future. I was curious how you chose your titles to print and how many titles you plan to make in the future. I think 100 would be a nice number, maybe ambitious but maybe you have plans for more. Lucky for the rest of us. Thank you for making these lovely books and here’s to good reading.’ E. Hanson, USA

20 Jul 2017

‘Lovely to behold . . .’

M. Darling, USA

‘Thanks to one and all for processing my book order. It arrived yesterday. As of yet, I have only unwrapped it, touched it, flipped the pages, but not read. The pinch of time has descended upon me, but it will pass and I will sit to read these fine stories. The books themselves are lovely to behold. Such a fine wrapping for the story within. Thank you again.’

24 Apr 2018

‘A tonic of inspiration and pleasure . . .’

M. Wren, Ely

‘Autumn Slightly Foxed received as ever a tonic of inspiration and pleasure. Thank you!’

14 Oct 2016

Through the Looking Glass

Jane Feaver on Life at Faber & Faber

By the end of the 1980s, in my mid-twenties, I’d been through university, a stint of unemployment, a couple of tread-water jobs, and come to a halt, a despondent Is this it? Not knowing what I wanted or expected, I sent off a flare of speculative letters, and by a strange percolation of nerve and chance I got an interview, and then a job, at Faber . . .

1 Sep 2017

‘Thanks for the reading . . .’

A. Raynaud, France

‘Thanks for the hours/days/months/years of reading inspired by your articles!’

24 May 2017

‘I have enjoyed every issue . . .’

P. Maher, Ireland

‘I have enjoyed every issue of Slightly Foxed and delighted in the new authors I have come across as a result.’

24 Mar 2017

July News: Re. your request for ideas for holiday reading:-

Once a month or so throughout the year, we meet around the kitchen table here at No. 53 to discuss the all-important ins and outs of Slightly Foxed business. We pore over officious spreadsheets and schedules, mutter about analytics and databases, discuss logistics for our annual Readers’ Day, mull over binding cloth and endpaper colour combinations, and then rattle through marketing before getting down to the VIP business of jollity. And, what could be jollier than not one, but two summer wayzgooses?

‘Just people being enthusiastic, almost evangelical, about books and writers . . .’

Miles Kington, writing in the Independent, December 2007

‘I come to you today to sing the praises of something which restores the colour to the cheeks of the word “bookish”, namely the magazine called Slightly Foxed. Have you come across this? You have to keep your eyes open as it is a quarterly – the issues are Spring, Summer, etc – and is entirely dedicated to pieces by writers about other writers they have loved, or feel are neglected, or whom we may take for granted . . .

Bookshop of the Quarter: Summer 2017

The Wyken Estate, just outside Bury St Edmunds, encompasses a vineyard, beautiful gardens, a restaurant, a café, a farmers’ market, an extensive country store and, notably, a bookshop. Carla Carlisle came to Wyken when she married her husband Kenneth in 1986. She set about diversifying the farm and it has thrived ever since.

Tawny Owl

Kathleen Lindsley

From the very first issue of Slightly Foxed we’ve championed the art of wood engraving as a form of book illustration and, over the years, have reproduced a wide variety of works by some of the best artists in the field. These richly detailed illustrations became so popular with our readers that we decided to give some of our favourite works a life outside the bounds of text illustration and, from the autumn 2014 issue, have run an occasional series of standalone features on engravers. This Tawny Owl by Kathleen Lindsley was the first to be featured in our Slightly Foxed wood engravers series.

Plain Jane? Plain Wrong

Daisy Hay on Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

There is nothing ‘common-place’ about Pride and Prejudice. It has a tightly woven, seductively intricate plot, which unfolds so delicately that the reader falls blindly into the traps of imperception set by the author, alongside that most perfect of imperfect heroines, Elizabeth Bennet. It has dialogue which sparkles and sings in the most extraordinary way, so that characters come alive in only a few words. It has a hero and heroine who fence and fight and fall in love . . .

1 Dec 2009

Ploughing On

Hazel Wood, Preface to Adrian Bell, The Cherry Tree

The writer Adrian Bell first arrived in Suffolk in 1920 – a delicate young would-be poet, fresh from public school at Uppingham and the polite drawing-rooms of Chelsea, under pressure from his father, who was news editor of the Observer, to get a proper job. He was, he says, ‘flying from the threat of office life’ when he first presented himself for work on the farm of an old-established farming family in the countryside near Bury St Edmunds.

1 Jun 2017

‘Tennis!’ I was astounded . . .

Diana Holman-Hunt, My Grandmothers and I

‘Lettice Spragg has promised to invite you to tennis one Sunday. I confided my worries to her and read aloud your father’s latest letter.’ ‘Tennis!’ I was astounded . . .

A Brush with the Law

Travis Elborough on Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr Fox

I recall being mildly disappointed that the factory in Charlie and the Chocolate was not fashioned solely from chocolate. Now that literalism strikes me as peculiarly wonderful. And, in retrospect, it seems completely bound up in my enjoyment as a young boy of what was far and away my favourite Dahl title: Fantastic Mr Fox – a book that continues to colonize my consciousness, if in rather bastardized form.

Under the Cherry Tree

This woodcut by C. F. Tunnicliffe illustrated Slightly Foxed Editor Hazel’s article on The Cherry TreeSF 54. Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe was born in Macclesfield in 1901. He grew up on a farm in Sutton around the wildlife which would later influence his work . . .

National Book League

Reynolds Stone

“Most of Strunk’s injunctions repeat common and commonsense rules of grammar and syntax, though his hatred of the term ‘student body’ and his preference for ‘studentry’ after the example of ‘citizenry’ shows how usage is often personal and sometimes eccentric . . .

Her name was Muriel Haidée Perry . . .

Diana Petre, The Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley

Her name was Muriel Haidée Perry and she was born on 5 March 1890, or so I believed when I went to Somerset House to look up the registration of her birth. It wasn’t there. What I was really looking for – this was after she was dead and I had started to write about her – were the names of her parents. This was something that I had never been able to get her to tell me.

The Spell of Stout Angus

Robert Macfarlane on James Stout Angus, A Glossary of the Shetland Dialect

In a poem written near the end of his life, W. S. Graham imagined himself as a ‘wordy ghost’, ‘floating across the frozen tundra / of the lexicon and the dictionary’. Like Graham – like many people – I am also a ‘wordy ghost’, who loves haunting the pages of lexicons, dictionaries and glossaries. Unlike Graham I find the pages of such books to be not ‘frozen tundra’, sterile and barren – but fabulous forests, alive with delving word-roots and spreading canopies of connotation.

1 Mar 2016

June News: The Word-Hoard – Love Letters to Our Land

At this time of year, the build-up of desket syndrome at SF HQ is increasingly problematic, and the prospect of escaping the city for a dose of the natural world becomes more appealing by the day. High up on our current wish list of excursions is a day out at The Word-Hoard exhibition at William Wordsworth’s childhood home in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth . . .

Roman Wall

Clifford Webb

‘In clear and elegant prose he described how lanes and hedges, copses, farmsteads, fields and place names could tell the story of the past and explain the configuration of the present . . .’

Summer 2017 Launch Party

Slightly Foxed and Harris & Harris Books

We celebrated the launch of our special limited edition of The Cherry Tree, the final book in Adrian Bell’s celebrated trilogy of Suffolk country life between the wars, at Harris & Harris Books in Clare on a sunny summer’s evening in July.

Dashing Fox

Sue Scullard

Most Slightly Foxed readers, we suspect, have some irritating gaps on their bookshelves left by favourite titles lent and never returned. A personal bookplate is an elegant and practical way of solving the problem, and would make a very handsome present for a bookworm or provide an excellent incentive to do that sort-out of your own books that you’ve long had in mind. This fine fox by Sue Scullard is one of eight designs available.

June News: There was this cock-sparrow, my father . . .

In V. S. Pritchett’s wonderful memoir of his childhood and youth, A Cab at the Door, ‘VSP’, as his friends called him, grew up in the shadow of a father whom his own son, our regular contributor Oliver, describes as very like Dickens’s Mr Micawber – expansive, extravagant, insanely optimistic, always certain that ‘something would turn up’. Usually it didn’t – hence the ‘cab at the door’, waiting to bear the family quietly away from another clutch of creditors . . .

Avid to Live and Learn

Anne Boston on V. S. Pritchett, A Cab at the Door

I shall always be grateful to A Cab at the Door. I read most of it one Sunday evening in a Victoria line tube train which was stuck for two hours outside King’s Cross station. The train lights dimmed and instead of the Blitz spirit a sullen, twitchy silence set in. I was spectacularly lucky in my companion. The sheer vigour of V. S. Pritchett’s writing and his benign, shrewd storyteller’s voice kept me suspended in his Edwardian boyhood until ‘the juice’, as the panic-stricken driver called it, came back on and we trundled away at last.

Stac Lee

Paul Kershaw

Mark Valentine explored the Isles and wild seas with Robert Atkinson in his article on Island Going in Slightly Foxed Issue 50, beautifully illustrated by Paul Kershaw’s woodcut of Stac Lee, home to part of the world’s largest colony of northern gannet.

Slightly Foxed Issue 54: From the Editors

Gail Pirkis & Hazel Wood

The trees are in full deep green leaf now, making a small oasis of Hoxton Square, while not fifty yards away the traffic roars past along Old Street. New regulations to cut down air pollution in London are on the way we learn, but now the fumes hang heavily in the summer air as we make for the office, dodging people coming in the other direction who seem to be talking to themselves but are actually on their mobile phones. As Jane Austen’s great hypochondriac Mr Woodhouse observes, ‘Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.’ For many of us these days it’s a hurrying, worrying world . . .

Crocuses

Rosalind Bliss

‘When you see your Crocuses wide open in flower sally forth with a stick of sealing-wax or the amber mouthpiece of an old pipe in your hand . . . Rub whichever of the two unusual accompaniments of a garden stroll you have chosen, on your coat-sleeve if it be woollen, and hold the rubbed portion as soon as possible after ceasing rubbing near the anthers of an open Crocus, and you will find the electricity thereby generated will cause the pollen grains to fly up to the electrified object, and, what is more, to stick there, but so lightly that directly they are rubbed against the stigma of another Crocus they will leave the amber and be left where you, and Nature before you, intended them to be.’ Essential instructions from E. A. Bowles . . . if you were wondering how to pollinate crocuses. Ursula Buchan introduced us to the green-fingered Bowles in her article on My Garden in Spring, which was featured in Issue 33 of Slightly Foxed and was illustrated by this woodcut from Rosalind Bliss.

Hisham Matar has won the Rathbones Folio Prize 2017

We’re thrilled to see so much recognition for The Return, which has also won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award at the PEN America Literary Awards.

30 May 2017

How long had I been standing here under the old cherry tree?

Adrian Bell, The Cherry Tree

How long had I been standing here under the old cherry tree? Minutes or years? While the storm with its batteries of thunder deployed across the sky, letting fall but a few drops – for all its growling – which the boughs above me caught and shook till they sparkled . . .

Strawberries

Simon Brett

‘Strawberries, and only strawberries, could now be thought or spoken of. “The best fruit in England — every body’s favourite — always wholesome. — These the finest beds and finest sorts. — Delightful to gather for one’s self — the only way of really enjoying them — delicious fruit — only too rich to be eaten much of — inferior to cherries — currants more refreshing — only objection to gathering strawberries the stooping — glaring sun . . .“’

Croquet

John Watson

‘One blazing sunny afternoon he finds himself for some inexplicable reason playing a game of croquet. He is a poor player up against a very good one, but he takes this as a pretext to expound a philosophy in celebration of the loser. ‘It is only we who play badly who love the Game itself . . .

84, Charing Cross Road: The Fulfillment of a Literary Dream . . .

Bag Full of Books

‘If you’ve read 84, Charing Cross Road, you’ll appreciate that Helene Hanff’s trip to London, the city of her literary dreams is the realization of a life-long ambition . . .

Rare set of 30 Second-hand Slightly Foxed Editions

Jennie Harrison Bunning

‘Slightly Foxed Editions are perfectly designed to curl up with – neat, sturdy little hardbacks, just the right size to hold in the hand and with a ribbon marker to keep your place. More important still, they’re wonderful reads –…

‘I would like to be in Grinzing again . . .’

Jennie Harrison Bunning

Our travelling bookworm Katy Macmillan-Scott left Vienna this weekend and, having picked up the necessary pastries to keep her going, set out on a two day trek onward to Bratislava . . .

At Home with the Cazalets

Sarah Perry on Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Cazalet Chronicles

‘All happy families resemble one another,’ said Tolstoy, rather sweepingly, ‘but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ The Anna Karenina principle has so long been taken for a truism one hesitates to disagree, but on reading Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles it occurred to me that there’s no such thing as a happy family – how could there be? – and that if there were, it would be a most unsatisfactory subject for a novel.

June News: Ploughing On

Summer has arrived at No. 53 Hoxton Square with the publication of the 54th issue of Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly and our 38th limited edition hardback, Adrian Bell’s The Cherry Tree. In the weeks preceding the Bank Holiday, the good people of…

May News: A character in ink-and-paper

Early copies of the Summer issue of Slightly Foxed have arrived in Hoxton Square, ready to be sent out to subscribers and bookshops all around the world in time for its release on 1 June. We don’t want to spoil…

Otter

Agnes Miller Parker

‘There’s something inspiring about the way he comes to write Tarka by a kind of deep immersion – plunging himself into the creature’s habits and habitats, crawling through spinneys and splashing through rivers to get an otter’s-eye view of the world . . .’

Robert Macfarlane: ‘When I first read A Time of Gifts I felt it in my feet. It spoke to my soles . . .’

Jennie Harrison Bunning

Listen to Robert Macfarlane reading from The Gifts of Reading. Recorded especially for Adventures for Harriet: a 600-mile literary pilgrimage across Europe by foot.

I knew I was inside the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe . . .

Patrick Leigh Fermor

After a first faraway glimpse, the two famous steeples grew taller and taller as the miles that separated us fell away . . .

Next stop, Tiel

Jennie Harrison Bunning

After a chilly night in a converted barn on a small organic farm near Ophemert, our literary adventurer hit the road again this morning, to continue her journey in the footprints of Patrick Leigh Fermor. This tantalizing scene of blue…

The Art of Walking

Jennie Harrison Bunning

The woman who walks properly embodies the poetry of motion, harmony of poise, and that scientific adjustment of the whole frame which bespeaks physical health and grace. In walking, the upper part of the body should be held erect, and…

The Kindness of Strangers

Jennie Harrison Bunning

Our lady adventurer Katy MacMillan-Scott is back on the road after a night in the beautiful home of a friend’s mother’s piano teacher…

Peacock Garden

Geri Waddington

‘Swift knows about containment and spillage. It’s the basic dynamic of her garden. In summer the plants billow out over the clipped box hedges that mark the borders, and roses ramble profusely away from their arbours. In winter, with the disappearance of summer’s temporary improvisations, the straight lines of the garden are revealed, dark evergreen and brown.’ Alexandra Harris wrote of the joy of reading Katherine Swift’s The Morville Hours in Issue 50, accompanied by Geri Waddington’s wonderful woodcut.

‘During these first three days I was never far from a towpath . . .

Jennie Harrison Bunning

So wrote Patrick Leigh Fermor about walking the riverways from Gorinchem to Zaltbommel in 1933. Despite the flat skies and relentless drizzle, our foxy foreign correspondent at large has had a couple of high peaks on today’s route.

It was still a couple of hours till dawn when we dropped anchor in the Hook of Holland . . .

Patrick Leigh Fermor

Snow covered everything and the flakes blew in a slant across the cones of the lamps and confused the glowing discs that spaced out the untrodden quay. I hadn’t known that Rotterdam was a few miles inland. I was still the only passenger in the train and this solitary entry, under cover of night and hushed by snow, completed the illusion that I was slipping into Rotterdam, and into Europe, through a secret door . . .

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