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Episode 39: Idle Moments: Literary Loafers through the Ages and Pages

Episode 39: Idle Moments: Literary Loafers through the Ages and Pages

In the spirit of Plato’s Symposium, the Slightly Foxed team enter into lively dialogue with Tom Hodgkinson of the Idler and Harry Mount of the Oldie, and learn lessons from notable loafers in literature. We begin with Doctor Johnson, an icon of indolence who wrote an essay called ‘The Idler’ and liked time to ponder; this lazy lexicographer claimed his dictionary would take three years to write when in fact it would take nine . . . We enjoy a leisurely spell with loungers in fiction, visiting Lady Bertram and her pug in Mansfield Park, taking to Lady Diana Cooper’s bed in A Handful of Dust, retreating to Aunt Ada Doom’s room in Cold Comfort Farm, settling into the quiet comfort of Mycroft Holmes’s Diogenes Club and meeting Thomas Love Peacock’s Honourable Mr Listless along the way. And, to finish, there are the usual wide-ranging reading recommendations for when you have an idle moment.
47 minutes
By people who love books, for people who love books | Slightly Foxed Editions

By people who love books, for people who love books | Slightly Foxed Editions

‘Smashing little hardbacks, the way hardbacks used to be . . . produced by people who love books, for people who love books.’ Belgravia Books There’s still time for us to help with gifts for booklovers before the year is out, and we’d like to draw your attention to our Slightly Foxed Editions – beautifully produced pocket hardbacks, just the right size to hold in the hand and with a ribbon marker to keep your place. Perfectly designed to curl up with, these reissues of classic memoirs are highly individual and absorbing reads. So whether you’re in need of a good book or a present for someone you’re fond of, do seize the chance to stock up now.
‘A subscription would make an inspired gift for a hungry reader.’

‘A subscription would make an inspired gift for a hungry reader.’

Greetings from Hoxton Square where we’re busy wrapping and packing great piles of subscriptions and books and sending them out to readers near and far for Christmas (and many other occasions besides). A subscription to Slightly Foxed magazine opens up a whole world of good reading. Companionable, entertaining and elegantly produced, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary review. So whether you’re in search of stimulation, consolation or diversion, a treat for yourself or a present for a bookish loved one, we recommend taking out a subscription to Slightly Foxed or giving a single issue or one of our books a try. For all gift subscriptions, we can send out the first issue with a handsome card bearing your gift message. We can send it directly to the recipient or to you to hand over in person, and, if you like, we can wrap the first issue in good brown paper and tie it with our smart foxed ribbon too. 
Beautiful books for the young at heart | Slightly Foxed Cubs

Beautiful books for the young at heart | Slightly Foxed Cubs

‘Thank you very much for publishing Ronald Welch, Rosemary Sutcliff and BB sets. Your editions are a joy to handle and have given me many happy hours.’ W. Smith Reading recommendations and present ideas are in plentiful supply at Slightly Foxed. Today we’re shining the spotlight on our Foxed Cubs series. These beautifully produced collectable children’s books strike a nostalgic chord with many older readers and introduce a younger generation to writers whose marvellous books have, unaccountably, been allowed to slip out of print. Bound in coloured cloth, with printed endpapers and original illustrations, the Cubs make ideal presents, as stand-alone titles or in sets. We have books, bundles and offers to satisfy all readers and occasions.
A Calendar of Covers for 2022

A Calendar of Covers for 2022

‘I love it! I intend to have some of the images framed as I did with the last calendar that I bought from you.’ S. Jackson We’re delighted with the response to our latest calendar – a special celebratory one to mark our 70th issue earlier this year. We’ve just cracked open the last few boxes so if you’ve been thinking about ordering one, you might like to do so fairly soon. It would make a charming present for anyone who loves Slightly Foxed, or indeed for anyone who hasn’t yet come across the magazine. It’s a handsome, spiral-bound decorative wall calendar printed on sturdy paper with a board backing, and features some more of the seasonal Slightly Foxed covers that readers enjoy so much. We feel it will raise the spirits and look good in any room.
Literary Gifts & Seasonal Treats | Slightly Foxed Readers’ Catalogue

Literary Gifts & Seasonal Treats | Slightly Foxed Readers’ Catalogue

Warm wishes from SF HQ. Parcels and packages are flying out from Hoxton Square to readers at a great pace and, whether they are literary gifts for a fellow bibliophile or seasonal treats that have caught your eye, we do hope they bring much cheer. Gift ideas for booklovers are abundant here at Slightly Foxed, and we hope that our online Winter Readers’ Catalogue (which includes our pick of books from other publishers’ bookshelves) provides some interesting and unusual present solutions. Or perhaps you may be tempted to stock up on some reading for yourself.
Episode 38: Literary Drinking: Alcohol in the Lives and Work of Writers

Episode 38: Literary Drinking: Alcohol in the Lives and Work of Writers

Booze as muse or a sure road to ruin? In this month’s episode, William Palmer – author of In Love with Hell: Drink in the Lives and Work of Eleven Writers – and Henry Jeffreys – author of Empire of Booze and The Cocktail Dictionary – join the Slightly Foxed team to mull over why alcohol is such an enduring feature in literature. From the omnipresence of cocktails in John Cheever’s short stories and ritual aperitifs in Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels to Mr Picksniff falling into Mrs Todger’s fireplace in Martin Chuzzlewit and P. G. Wodehouse’s hangover remedies for booze-soaked Bertie Wooster, drinks are social signifiers in fiction. Charles Dickens was fond of sherry cobblers and Jean Rhys knocked back Pernod in Paris, while Malcolm Lowry was a dipsomaniac and Flann O’Brien dreamed up alcoholic ink for the Irish Times, rendering readers drunk from fumes. We ask why gin denotes despair and port is always jovial, and question whether hitting the bottle helps or hinders the creative process in writers.
41 minutes
A Telegraph Best Book of 2021 | Letters to Michael

A Telegraph Best Book of 2021 | Letters to Michael

We are absolutely delighted to report that copies of our recently published Special Release – Letters to Michael: a father writes to his son 1945–1947 – have been flying out of Foxed HQ to readers around the world this month, many of them gift wrapped in good brown paper with hand-written notes to be opened on Christmas Day. This is thanks, in part, to glowing write-ups by Bel Mooney for the Daily Mail and Iona McLaren for the Telegraph a few weeks ago, and inclusion in a round-up of the very best books for 2021 by Telegraph critics this weekend. Thanks too to our bookselling friends at Daunt, John Sandoe, Hatchards and to many other wonderful independent shopkeepers up and down the country who have been creating delicious-looking displays featuring the book, pressing it into the hands of customers and selecting it for their seasonal catalogues.
1st March 2022

Slightly Foxed Issue 73: From the Editors

After a long winter of disruptions, there’s definitely a feeling of spring in the air at Slightly Foxed. We know we’re not out of the woods yet where Covid is concerned, but the start of the year has been busy, and we’re still enjoying the novelty of meeting in the office instead of facing unflattering versions of ourselves on Zoom. Outside in the square the trees are just coming into bud, and the tatty old London pigeons are bowing and flirting on the ledge outside the office window.
- Gail Pirkis & Hazel Wood
From the editors

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