From Readers | Slightly Foxed

- Search for:
0
0

From Readers

15th October 2021

‘I recently read George Clare’s Last Waltz in Vienna . . .’

‘I recently read George Clare’s Last Waltz in Vienna. It is a superb, well written book that provides insight into the harrowing world of Vienna in the 1930s. Set within the complex lives of a single family, it communicates the…

- S. Brumberg, New York

4th October 2021

‘Two rich recent discoveries – both published by Slightly Foxed Editions’

The Empress of Ireland is the novelist and screenwriter Christopher Robbins’s account of his friendship with the most successful forgotten Irish film director of all time, Brian Desmond Hurst . . . The book, simply, is a masterpiece, and its neglect is as inexplicable as that of its subject. Still Life by Richard Cobb, first published in 1983, is a memoir of a Tunbridge Wells childhood. Cobb, historian and Francophile, seems to have had a photographic memory, and his memoir is both an uncannily vivid resurrection of past times . . .

- John Banville, Literary Review

14th September 2021

‘Thank you for your excellent publications . . .’

‘Thank you for your excellent publications and your prompt service. I have enjoyed each issue of the Slightly Foxed quarterly (I received a gift subscription from my daughter), and as a result of Patrick Welland’s essay, I ordered, and promptly…

- S. Brumberg, New York

6th September 2021

The warmth of a book | Slightly Foxed podcast reviewed

In The Slightly Foxed Podcast, we’re treated not only to recommendations for unusual books, but also must-visit bookstores, museums and libraries. For bibliophiles, there’s no greater joy than being in the company of people who will endlessly talk books . . . It’s homey, yet rich with information and insight.

A Countryman’s Notebook: Adrian Bell and the Loss of Rural Culture

Adrian Bell, most well-known for Corduroy and his ‘Rural Trilogy’, was a farmer-writer whose work reflects the changes in farming between 1920 and 1980. In the second half of his life, his Countryman’s Notebook essays were his main literary output. From 1950 to 1980 he wrote one each week for East Anglia’s The Eastern Daily Press: nearly 1600 in total.

- Richard Hawking

True to nature: Robert Macfarlane, Helen Macdonald and more on the children’s books that inspired them

A couple of years ago I found myself gazing at the cover of a book I’d loved as a child: the 1942 Carnegie medal-winning The Little Grey Men, by the naturalist, illustrator and sportsman Denys Watkins-Pitchford, who wrote under the name…

- Melissa Harrison

‘I love the nature writing of BB’

‘I love the nature writing of BB (Denys Watkins-Pitchford), who grew up in a vicarage near mine in Northamptonshire, and snap up every copy of Brendon Chase I find in secondhand bookshops.’ From Reverend Richard Coles’s ‘Books that made me’, Guardian

- Reverend Richard Coles

Food in books: Eccles cakes from Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee | The Little Library Café

While preparing for a trip to ‘Laurie Lee country’ – the Cotswolds – Kate Young bakes a batch of Eccles cakes, enjoyed by the author in his childhood. We lined up in the cold, not noticing the cold, waiting for…

15th December 2020

‘The funniest book I’ve read this year.’

‘Slightly Foxed is another brilliant imprint, publishing small hardback books from unfairly neglected authors. This year’s finest includes Christopher Robbins’ hilarious The Empress of Ireland, an account of the friendship between an English journalist and Brian Desmond Hurst, a flamboyant film director . . .’

11th November 2020

The shocking story of Charles and Mary Lamb: Slightly Foxed podcast reviewed

This story might have made for lurid telling, but the podcasters let James set it out plainly before interjecting with pertinent questions and steering the discussion to the Lambs’ work. The respectful quietness of Slightly Foxed is one of its virtues. Where other podcasts suffer from a crescendo of competing voices, this is steady and understated and, yes, all the cosier for being so.

Wolf Hall for kids: Why Ronald Welch’s novels will help your children fall in love with history

Ronald Welch, a tank commander turned schoolmaster, is one of the 20th century’s most underrated children’s writers. Like Hilary Mantel, he understood that what makes a lost epoch stick in your mind is not the dates but the details. His books positively foam with information . . .

- Iona McLaren, Telegraph

13th February 2020

The New European Best Literary Podcasts 2020

‘The associated podcast launched a year or so ago reflects the erudition, intelligence and wide-ranging enthusiasm of the magazine and its contributors.’

- The New European

4th November 2019

‘I’ve only just received my first issue, and my “to-read” list has already become much longer.’

‘An attractive flyer slipped out from the pages and grabbed my attention. It was about Slightly Foxed, a British quarterly literary magazine “for literary nonconformists.” I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced love at first sight, but this came close. I was hooked even before I made it to the Slightly Foxed website . . . I’ve only just received my first issue, and my “to-read” list has already become much longer.’

- Serendipities | West Coast Editorial Associates Blog

30th October 2019

‘Reading this book is like returning to an old friend’

Reading this book is like returning to an old friend. I remember reading it as a child . . . Slightly Foxed have re-issued my old friend in a gorgeous new edition – their books are always a pleasure to read. Beautifully bound, with the original illustrations by C. Walter Hodges (the Roman watchtower on page 216 is really evocative of an abandoned outpost of Empire north of the Wall) . . .

- Northern Reader

18th October 2019

‘What makes Corduroy such an enjoyable book is the way he writes about the experience.’

The majority of the book is Bell being introduced to a task, doing it badly, and getting better. What makes Corduroy such an enjoyable book is the way he writes about the experience. He is never patronizing about the labourers, and nor does he idolize them with the eye of a Romantic poet.

- Stuck in a Book

3rd October 2019

‘These books from Slightly Foxed are like perfect gems.’

‘I have found a book, and three more to follow, which is such a joy and has delighted me so much . . . These books are superbly produced and so elegant to look at and to hold . . . these books from Slightly Foxed are like perfect gems.’

- Random Jottings

Sign up to our e-newsletter

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