While Oxford Street heaves with shoppers in search of Christmas deals, our Hoxton foxhole remains a haven of orderly chaos. The SF girls are calmly packing up beribboned copies of the new Winter issue and all sorts of books and other Foxed goods intended as Christmas presents. We’ll be sending these out next week, ready for readers to put under their trees. For those of you who find all this talk of Black Friday and Cyber Monday really rather foxing, may we suggest you read on for some tempting gift ideas? We can wrap presents with smart ribbon and thick brown paper and enclose a handwritten gift card bearing a delightful wood-engraving by Howard Phipps. Our last posting date is Monday 22 December but do try to order in good time if you can.
Of course this season is also about celebrating and we were delighted to be able to do just this at our Christmas drinks party at the shop on Tuesday. The basement quickly filled up with friends, family and many subscribers, all clutching copies of the latest Slightly Foxed Edition, My Family and Other Animals (as well a mince pie!). Thank you to those who came along and to all our readers for your support, kind words and enthusiasm, which have meant so much to us over the last ten years. We wish you all a very happy Christmas and send our best wishes for the New Year. But before we bid you a final farewell for 2014, please read on for the young Gerry Durrell’s account of his family’s rather unusual Christmas party, starring Dodo (the family’s Dandie Dinmont Terrier), introduced by a short extract from Simon Barnes’s foreword to our new edition of this perennial favourite.