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.
As Michael Barber wrote in his preface to our Slightly Foxed Edition of Sword of Bone (published last September),
[Rhodes’s] polished, wry and really rather subversive memoir belongs to what George Orwell called ‘unofficial history’ – the kind that is ignored in textbooks and lied about in the Press. At a time when we take spin for granted and free speech is under threat it certainly deserves a fresh airing.
Do read on for an extract from Sword of Bone and, to follow, details of an exciting competition from our friends at the National Portrait Gallery, offering the opportunity to win afternoon tea and tickets to The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt.
In other news from Foxed Towers, Paul made the long journey down from Smith Settle this morning, with the van fit to bursting with five new books for the autumn, our new range of greetings cards, advance copies of the forthcoming issue, and rather a lot else besides. Of which, more news to come next week for, as of 5.30 p.m. today (Thursday 3 August), the office will be closed until 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday 8 August for our irregular wayzgoose at SF Editor Gail’s Dartmoor home. We shall return next week, ruddy-cheeked, clear-headed and good-humoured, ready for the new season’s bout of post bag wrestling, tape gun wielding and book lugging.
We’ll look forward to catching up with you all again then.
Best wishes as ever from the office foxes
Jennie, Anna, Olivia & Hattie