What excellent company you are!

I have been devoted to your podcast for over a year; it could be improved only by being more frequent. Every book I have ordered from you has been a delight; nothing disappoints. I receive your emails with pleasure, and that’s saying a lot. Slightly Foxed is a source of content . . . ’
K. Nichols, Washington, USA

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‘I was first given a subscription as a present . . .’

‘I was first given a subscription as a present from my son and enjoyed it so much that I extended it to September 2020. I look forward to the magazine which makes me reread old friends. I really enjoy your podcasts (and appreciate the dogs' interventions as I have two dogs myself, one of whom barked angrily back to the podcast I listened to earlier!) which make me feel I know you personally. I have read and given away several of your beautiful books. They are such lovely things in themselves and I do appreciate having a bookmark built in as postcards and other bookmarks fall out so easily.’
New this Summer from Slightly Foxed

New this Summer from Slightly Foxed

We’re delighted to let you know that the Summer issue of Slightly Foxed (No. 62) left the printing press at Smith Settle yesterday and will start to arrive with readers in the UK from today and elsewhere over the next few weeks. It ranges far and wide in the usual eclectic manner. 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 seasonal reading and other offers and bundles. We do hope you’ll enjoy the new issue of the quarterly, wherever in the world you are. If you are on a repeat order to receive each limited-edition memoir each quarter, your usual hand-numbered copy of Love and War in the Apennines will be with you very soon. We shall look forward to the usual flurry of emails, letters, postcards, telephone calls and visits that the turn of the new quarter brings – hearing from you all is one of the nicest parts of the job.

‘I would love to pop into Hoxton Square . . .’

‘I would love to pop into Hoxton Square, sit at your kitchen table, and talk about books. Unfortunately, that is difficult because I live in Colorado. However, your monthly podcasts are the next best thing. I enjoy them so much and feel like all of you are becoming good friends. I look forward to your ‘visit’ in June.’

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

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

‘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?’
From the Slightly Foxed archives || Not Swinging, Just Dancing

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.

Grave Expectations

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.
SF magazine subscribers only
Episode 7: A Window on the World

Episode 7: A Window on the World

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.
39 minutes

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

‘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.’
1st May 2019

‘What an eclectic delight. . .’

‘Hopefully you never tire of accolades from first time readers of SF quarterly? What an eclectic delight, even for those of us with a limited literary background. The review of In Hazard was bursting with insight, a compelling enthusiasm and written by a ‘non-professional’ – I hesitate to use ‘amateur’ – was the contributor ever a teacher/lecturer of English? As a runner- up I can only assume the competition winner was particularly outstanding? The illustrations are a delightful ‘bonus’, looking at the covers of back editions they are an excellent showcase of often overlooked artists’ work. By coincidence the July 2018 cover reflected my own garden at that time, for the first time, drifts of Myosotis arvensis injected a flush of hazy blue with a rash of random, rogue Digitalis. If you had not already found a mischievous, vulpine icon (an escapee from Richard Hughes attic perhaps) that image may have been a charming alternative; as it would have reflected at least part of a SF mission statement? Posy Fallowfield’s final assurance echoing the same sentiment. Your online newsletters and podcasts are greatly appreciated, keep up the good work – a world without real publications ‘to have and to hold’ will be immeasurably poorer!’
- B. Jefferson, Somerset
From readers

‘Thank you for your podcast . . .’

‘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!’

‘Really enjoyed your sixth podcast. . .’

‘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.’
25th April 2019

‘Thank you for finding the second-hand copy of The Spoken Word. . .’

‘Thank you for finding the second-hand copy of The Spoken Word and sending it to me. It arrived this morning and acted as a 57th wedding anniversary gift for my husband, who had shown great interest in it when I showed him the relevant article in Slightly Foxed. He has read through it already and I've had a glance, and I'm sure it will provide much discussion and some hilarity between us. (He is a confirmed pedant.)’
- B. Baldwin, Cardiff
From readers

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

‘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.)’
From the Slightly Foxed bookshelves || John Moore, Brensham Village

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 . . .

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

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

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