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A selection of photos posted on Instagram by the Slightly Foxed staff.

It is people rather than places that the library r

It is people rather than places that the library remembers . . . 📚⁠
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Anthony Wells worked at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London for a decade. In this episode he leads the Slightly Foxed editors into the history of the library, which holds one of the most extensive archives on the Holocaust and the Nazi era. We travel to Germany, Amsterdam, New York and Tel Aviv, but it is people rather than places that the library remembers with its annals of personal stories. Dr Alfred Wiener, a German Jew who fought in the First World War, was one of the first to note the rise of the Nazi Party, and he began to assemble an archive of information in order to undermine their activities. From downfall by documentation in the Nuremberg Trial to a tracing service made up of millions of records, we learn how @wienerlibrary ensures that those who disappeared are not forgotten.⁠
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💫Out now! Episode 27 of the Foxed Pod: ‘Dr Wiener’s Library’💫 We think it makes for excellent listening and hope the #BookCommunity will agree.⁠
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⁠Our bookish podcast is free for all to listen, and you can do so on our website (link in bio 🔗) or by searching for Slightly Foxed on @iTunes, @applepodcasts, @spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public or your favourite podcast app. ⁠
⁠⁠Happy listening good readers, and please let us know what you think by leaving a review or comment. And if you know a fellow bookworm who would enjoy the #FoxedPod why not tag them or share this post with them so they can listen for themselves? 🎧📚⁠

‘It’s the Frontier Wolves for you. And don’t

‘It’s the Frontier Wolves for you. And don’t ask me how they came by their fond-name, you’ll find out soon enough.’⁠
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‘Command of the Frontier Scouts up at Castellum,’ Alexios’s uncle had said. ‘Command of an Ordo – two Centuries in place of the one that you have commanded until now – and of the fort itself. Promotion to the rank of Ducenarius. It sounds like advancement, doesn’t it? Make no mistake, it’s not. You’re an incompetent soldier, unfit to serve in a decent auxiliary cohort, so – it’s the Frontier Wolves for you. And don’t ask me how they came by their fond-name, you’ll find out soon enough. They may make some kind of man of you, if they don’t arrange for you to have a fatal accident instead. I believe that has happened before now. . .’⁠
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After a disastrous misjudgement which cost the lives of half his men, Alexios, another young centurion and member of the Aquila family, is sent to take charge of a bleak Roman outpost on Hadrian’s Wall and the savage bunch of men who defend it, the Frontier Wolves of the title. Dealing with this notorious legion is literally a matter of life and death for Alexios, for a commander who alienates them is unlikely to survive. Frontier Wolf tells the story of how this flawed but likeable hero grows in stature, gradually gaining his legion’s respect and the co-operation of the surrounding tribes, and defending Rome as the threat from the north grows.⁠
As well as being brilliant reads, Rosemary Sutcliff’s four Roman novels make sense of a far-off period that left its mark on almost every aspect of British life. They have been difficult to find for some time and we’re delighted to have reissued them in our series of Slightly Foxed Cubs.

‘He left the main ride and wandered on towards t

‘He left the main ride and wandered on towards the Blind Pool which he knew lay somewhere on his left . . .’⁠
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‘As he approached the pool he thought, once, he heard something moving in the underwood on the left of the path. The ferns shook as though some animal was making that way, but after a second or two all was still. A deer perhaps, or a rabbit . . . When at last he pushed out of the bushes he saw the pool, silent as usual and deserted, though many ripples came widening from under the willows. Waterfowl, no doubt, fleeing into hiding. But there was no fine Emperor floating about in the hot sunlight, or drinking the dark green waters, so after a smoke on the bank and another pull at his beer bottle, he made his way back down the path by which he had come. Already the sun was westering, and by the time he reached the car most of the butterflies had gone to bed.’ BB, Brendon Chase⁠
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Brendon Chase is one of the great children’s books, a bewitching blend of adventure and natural history, and full of finely observed detail from the natural world, beautifully captured in BB’s illustrations.⁠
Faced with the end of the holidays and the prospect of school, Robin, John and Harold Hensman escape their aunt’s house and go to live in an eleven-thousand-acre forest. It’s a marvellous idea. There’s a wonderful cast of pre-war English village characters: a fussy maiden aunt, a butterfly-collecting vicar and a rather hapless policeman and his bicycle, among others. None of the grown-ups believe the boys will make it past teatime, or nightfall, or the end of the week. Needless to say, the brothers outwit them all. With remarkable resourcefulness, they last till just after Christmas, living in a hollow oak tree and spending their days hunting for their supper, swimming in the Blind Pool and playing tricks on all who come searching for them . . .⁠
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Our handsome Slightly Foxed Cubs edition of Brendon Chase is available to order on the SF website: foxedquarterly.com

Slightly Foxed and The Biographers’ Club are del

Slightly Foxed and The Biographers’ Club are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2020.⁠⠀
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THE SHORTLIST:⁠⠀
- Heather Clark, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath (Jonathan Cape)⁠⠀
As well as offering illuminating readings of Plath’s poems, this meticulous, compassionate life employs new material to bring us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail for women poets the world over. ⁠⠀
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- Hadley Freeman, House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family (4th Estate)⁠⠀
Freeman’s richly researched and beautifully written story of the origins of her scattered family, from their shtetl in Poland to Paris and Long Island, is suffused with loss and longing and questions about the force of circumstance and identity.⁠⠀
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- Sudhir Hazareesingh, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture (Allen Lane)⁠⠀
A gripping biography of the military mastermind and leader of the slave revolt that led to Haiti’s independence. No eighteenth-century figure can have led a more extraordinary life, born into slavery and dying a leader of men and martyr of freedom. ⁠⠀
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- Shelley Klein, The See-Through House: My Father in Full Colour (Chatto & Windus)⁠⠀
Klein’s memoir of her father Bernat, a celebrated textile designer, and of the glass house that he built in which to bring up his family, is funny, nuanced and disarmingly honest. It is a tender farewell to an architectural wonder and to the gifted, complicated man who created it.⁠⠀
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- Jonathan Lichtenstein, The Berlin Shadow: Living with the Ghosts of the Kindertransport (Scribner)⁠⠀
Lichtenstein retraces his father Hans’s journey from Berlin as a child refugee – and documents their return many decades later. This is a deeply moving memoir in three timeframes that confronts the defining trauma of the twentieth century and its effects on a father and son⁠.
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The judges for the 2020 prize are Rupert Christiansen, Selina Hastings and Alexander Masters.⁠⠀
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@thebiographersclublondon @jonathancape @4thestatebooks @penguinukbooks @allenlanepr @chattobooks @scribnerbooks @simonandschuster⁠

‘There’s nothing like the feeling of anticipat

‘There’s nothing like the feeling of anticipation Slightly Foxed brings. The sheer enjoyment of making a fresh pot of coffee and deciding where to begin, being reminded of old favourites or discovering enticing new ones . . .’⁠
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Greetings from all of us at Slightly Foxed. We hope that you are keeping safe and well. In light of the latest restrictions in the UK, we wanted to reassure you that we are able to safely dispatch books and goods. Please note that all orders will take a little longer to be dispatched than usual, and we are very grateful for your patience and continued support.⁠
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Royal Mail are committed to providing as regular a service as possible but there are delays to postal services both in the UK and overseas. Please do email Jess or telephone the office and leave a message if you have any questions about your order: office@foxedquarterly.com / +44 (0)20 7033 0258.⁠
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And rest assured there is much to look forward to in coming months, as the spring quarter will bring the 69th issue of Slightly Foxed with its usual eclectic and wide-ranging recommendations for good reading, SF Edition No. 54: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee and the next in our series of Slightly Foxed Cubs, Rosemary Sutcliff’s Dawn Wind. We’re certainly looking forward to March and its bookish bounty and hope all you bookworms are too 📚

‘Middlemarch, I decided, was a novel about the c

‘Middlemarch, I decided, was a novel about the challenges of adulthood . . .’⁠
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‘When I first read Middlemarch I was 30, living in a basement flat in King’s Cross and pursuing a career in publishing. I thought of myself as mature, though this notion amuses me now. I had been married for five years – indeed, I think it was my late wife who urged me to read it, along with Anna Karenina, Our Mutual Friend and a number of other masterpieces that had somehow eluded me during my ill-spent youth. I remember feeling glad I had not discovered the book before, because (so I believed) it would not have meant so much to me at an earlier stage in life. Middlemarch, I decided, was a novel about the challenges of adulthood: work and marriage. Though I did not realize it then, the very title of the novel alludes to the middle of life’s journey. This is surely what Virginia Woolf meant when she described Middlemarch as ‘one of the very few English novels written for grown-up people’.’ Adam Sisman on George Eliot’s Middlemarch in Issue 68 of Slightly Foxed.⁠
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We’re delighted to announce that our bestselling Winter issue is back in stock. Our printers have worked their magic once again and provided us with a reprint in record time. Any outstanding orders will be dispatched in the next couple of days and we do hope this little bookish treat will prove to be a welcome diversion for the New Year.⁠
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We are still able to safely dispatch orders for Slightly Foxed books and goods but please note that all orders will take a little longer to arrive than usual. We are so grateful that orders are coming in as they help our small business to keep going, and we value your continued support.

‘Jigsaws of frost on the window . . .’⁠ .⁠

‘Jigsaws of frost on the window . . .’⁠
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‘Winter was no more typical of our valley than summer, it was not even summer’s opposite; it was merely that other place. And somehow one never remembered the journey towards it; one arrived, and winter was here. The day came suddenly when all details were different and the village had to be rediscovered. One’s nose went dead so that it hurt to breathe, and there were jigsaws of frost on the window. The light filled the house with a green polar glow; while outside – in the invisible world – there was a strange hard silence, or a metallic creaking, a faint throbbing of twigs and wires.⁠
The kitchen that morning would be full of steam, billowing from kettles and pots. The outside pump was frozen again, making a sound like broken crockery, so that the girls tore icicles from the eaves for water and we drank boiled ice in our tea.’ Laurie Lee, Cider with Rosie⁠
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Laurie Lee was born in Stroud in 1914, and in 1917 the family moved to a damp and crumbling cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Slad. His childhood memoir, Cider with Rosie, is not just a rosy picture of a rural past, of village life with its familiar characters, but a magical evocation of growing up in a lost world that rings emotionally true. ⁠
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Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie is our latest Slightly Foxed Edition. Lee’s second memoir, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, will be published as an SF Edition in March. Both of these highly collectable volumes are available to order now on the SF website: foxedquarterly.com

‘Something is always missing and it is this disa

‘Something is always missing and it is this disappearance which, despite their near-invisibility, proves the existence of these Borrowers. It’s elementary, my dear reader. . .’⁠
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‘We never see the Borrowers (or only very occasionally after drinking several glasses of Fine Madeira). But we are aware of the number of objects that vanish all the time. Something is always missing and it is this disappearance which, despite their near-invisibility, proves the existence of these Borrowers. It’s elementary, my dear reader. As Sherlock Holmes explained: ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’⁠
These improbable beings have something in common with the inhabitants of the Island of Lilliput, where Gulliver was shipwrecked in the first part of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (Mary Norton brings in the word ‘shipwreck’ to alert us to this connection). The Lilliputians were some six inches high (slightly taller, I calculate, than the Borrowers), and by recording their wars and social customs on such a diminished scale, Swift’s satire made devastating ridicule of them – which is to say of us. (Another children’s book, T. H. White’s Mistress Masham’s Repose, ingeniously imagines the further fate of Swift’s Lilliputians.)’⁠
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We’re continuing our travels through the Slightly Foxed archives, selecting an article for each letter of the alphabet that everyone can read on our website for free. In this piece from Issue 42 of Slightly Foxed magazine Michael Holroyd discovers Mary Norton’s The Borrowers novels in his ‘second childhood’. Link in bio 🔗 happy reading!⁠

‘Sometimes I glance at them to remember with lau

‘Sometimes I glance at them to remember with laughter . . .’⁠
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‘Since I was about 5 years old I have kept a diary. Though I am now 80, most of these have survived my many adventures and travels and sometimes I glance at them to remember with laughter . . . But now I am old and in the Departure Lounge – though certainly still growing up – I look back with amusement at how ‘cock-sure’ I became and how often wrong; so many of those creatures who, at first, looked big and fierce became my lifelong friends; so many ‘insects’ turned out to be brilliant, fascinating and kind companions. My diaries, written mostly at night and always in haste, in nurseries, schoolrooms, cars, boats, aeroplanes and sometimes in loos, expose how we all arrive, helpless, innocent and ignorant; and then, as we step gingerly into the jungle, show how afraid, selfish, showoff and silly we often are. Mine also prove how lucky I have always been.’ Hermione Ranfurly, To War with Whitaker⁠
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A good sturdy notebook – the kind you’re not going to lose – is surely one of life’s essentials; a place for those vital to-do lists, a repository for Great Thoughts, memorable quotes, notes of books borrowed and lent, important addresses, other people’s recipes – its uses are endless. As a record, too, a notebook is every bit as immediate as a diary – a patchwork of everyday life that, years later, can vividly bring back the essence of a particular moment.⁠
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Just like the Slightly Foxed Editions, The Slightly Foxed Notebook is bound in cloth and comes complete with coloured endpapers, silk head- and tailband and ribbon marker. This year why not take a leaf out of Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly’s book and keep a record of your activities in a handsome notebook. Perhaps one day you too will look back on your escapades and smile . . .

‘Thank you all for an entertaining podcast. Enri

‘Thank you all for an entertaining podcast. Enriching, enlightening and companionable.’⁠
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We do hope that this past year has brought some welcome good reading. There’s still time to add to reading lists before the year is out however and, ready as always to help with such matters, we suggest settling down, putting your feet up and listening to the Slightly Foxed podcast. The latest episode – about winter writing through the ages – was released on 15 December and, if you haven’t yet heard it, you might like to catch up with a spell of lively bookish conversation. ⁠
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In this seasonal episode, the Slightly Foxed team are guided through a snowstorm of winter writing over twelve centuries by the literary critic and author of Weatherland, Alexandra Harris. The tour takes us from Anglo-Saxon mead halls and monsters to Renaissance bodily humours, then on through cool, translucent Enlightenment weather into the dark cloud of the nineteenth century and beyond. We visit frost-fair carnivals on the frozen Thames with Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, brave the Brontës’ wild moorland, stay steamed up indoors with Jane Austen, sink into Dickens’s pea-soupers and see in the ‘year’s midnight’ with John Donne as we listen to a winter’s tale through literature. ⁠
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Link in bio 🔗

Avoid clichés like the plague. ⁠
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What’s another word for thesaurus? ⁠
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There are two rules about stand-up comedy. The first is always leave them wanting more . . .⁠
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Slightly Foxed’s winter bestseller, An Englishman’s Commonplace Book, would make the ideal gift for any bookworm or those sorely missing John Julius Norwich’s annual delight, A Christmas Cracker. ⁠
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An Englishman’s Commonplace Book calls forth a variety of reactions. Ranging over the centuries, it contains a rich mix of often arresting facts, vivid descriptions, absurd observations and wise words. Sir Christopher Wren rubs shoulders with Eddie Izzard, Princess Margaret with Elizabeth I. And all organized under subject headings to help find that appropriate quote. ⁠
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‘Variety, the unexpected, a bit of vulgarity and the ridiculous mixed in with the elevated,’ has been Roger Hudson’s recipe in compiling this commonplace book from material he’s gathered over the past 40 years. And that is what we are given in this wide-ranging collection by a well-read man with a sharp eye, an ironic – indeed very English – sense of humour and a devotion to history. ⁠
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An Englishman’s Commonplace Book is available to buy from the Slightly Foxed online bookshop at foxedquarterly.com

As we head into another spate of lockdowns across

As we head into another spate of lockdowns across the UK and indeed around the world, we feel it’s more important than ever to show support for local and independent bookshops. With each changing season we highlight our Bookshop of the Quarter and this winter it is the turn of the latest bookshop in the Topping & Co family, Topping & Company Booksellers of Edinburgh. We spoke to Tilly from @toppingsedin who kindly answered our very highbrow bookish questions . . . ⁠⠀
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Who has been your favourite customer? ⁠⠀
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‘We couldn’t possibly pick! We don’t see visitors to the bookshop as our ‘customers’ anyway – they are readers, supporters and friends. It would be remiss, though, not to mention some of our wonderful four-legged visitors. You can even see some of our Top Dogs – and the very occasional Top Cat – on our dedicated Instagram account @dogsoftopping.’ ⁠⠀
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Who would be your dream bookshop party guests? ⁠⠀
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‘An eclectic mix of names from a round up at the bookshop: Virginia Woolf, Noam Chomsky, Shirley Jackson, Irvine Welsh, Malorie Blackman, Ken Kesey, Rebecca Solnit, George Orwell, Barack Obama, Olga Tokarczuk and Terry Pratchett. Quite the invitation list!’ ⁠⠀
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For more from our current Bookshop of the Quarter, and previous holders of this coveted title, visit the Slightly Foxed website: foxedquarterly.com/category/stockists⁠⠀
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#ToppingAndCompany #Booksellers #SlightlyFoxed #ChooseBookshops #Edinburgh #Bookshop #IndieBookshop #BookshopsOfInstagram #ShopLocal #PrettyBookPlaces #EdinburghSnapshots #EdinburghLife #SharingAWorldOfShops #Bookshops #IndieBookstore #ReadingTime #ShopIndie #IndependentBookstore #ReadersOfInstagram #BookCommunity #Bookshelves #BookShelfie #LibraryLadder #RoomWithAView #ReadingNook #BooksAreMagic #MoreBooksLessAlgorithm #BookstagramFeature #BooksOnBooks #BooksAreMyBag

‘For as long as Fox could remember, he would wak

‘For as long as Fox could remember, he would wake at night to the cool, calm light of the Star . . .’⁠
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‘I was asked to produce an illustration for the cover for Slightly Foxed’s winter issue. I called it ‘Winter’s Dance’ and it is based on my first book, The Fox and the Star. Slightly Foxed once had a wonderful physical bookshop where The Fox and the Star was launched! It was the beginning of something so special for me. Thank you Slightly Foxed for asking me to be involved in the fantastic work you do and thank you for supporting Fox all those years ago . . .’ @coraliebickfordsmith⁠
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We’re so grateful to Coralie Bickford-Smith for designing the cover of Issue 68 of Slightly Foxed magazine. We’re amazed she found the time between her work on the Penguin clothbound classics at @penguinukbooks and writing and illustrating her own books, The Fox and the Star, The Worm and the Bird, and The Song of the Tree, which have brought such joy to children and adults alike.⁠
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We can’t thank our #FoxedReaders enough for all their support this year, and particularly for this issue. For the first time in almost 16 years, we’ve sold so many copies of this issue that we’re having to reprint during the quarter! Issue 68 will be back in stock in January 2021 and we do hope those of you who are waiting for it will thoroughly enjoy its contents and its handsome cover.

‘’Twas the night before Christmas, when all th

‘’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house ⁠
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; ⁠
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, ⁠
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; ⁠
The children were nestled all snug in their beds; ⁠
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; ⁠
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, ⁠
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap . . .’⁠
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Clement Clarke Moore’s festive tale, ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’, is of course Allie Esiri’s choice for Christmas Eve in her anthology, A Poem for Every Night of the Year. These poems, together with introductory paragraphs, all have a connection with the date on which they appear. For instance, Shakespeare celebrates midsummer night and Maya Angelou International Women’s Day. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, W. B. Yeats and A. A. Milne sit alongside Roger McGough, Carol Ann Duffy and Benjamin Zephaniah. A favourite among Slightly Foxed readers this winter, @allieesiri’s A Poem for Every Night of the Year is a perfectly crafted compendium to guide you through the year with a little bit of literary magic to savour each evening.

‘Behind a locked door, in an upper room, there i

‘Behind a locked door, in an upper room, there is likely to be a slim quarto volume that you might not expect . . .’⁠
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‘And then there are the books. Each church has its Bible, obviously, stacks of hymn books ready to be handed out on Sundays, and aged copies of the Book of Common Prayer, these perhaps kept in a glass-fronted cabinet and used only by the few faithful who venture out for Evensong. All these you would expect to find as you wander around, your eyes gradually growing used to the shadows after the bright sunshine outside. There is, however, another book. Behind a locked door, in an upper room, there is likely to be a slim quarto volume that you might not expect. You must be intrepid to reach it: you will need a key to unlock the door; you will need to climb a ladder or a spiral stair; there may be narrow passages through the thick walls, or boarded walkways through the roof-space, running over the top of the vaulted ceiling of the church below. Finally you will pass notices: ‘No Entry!’ ‘Danger!’ ‘Don’t Touch the Ropes!’⁠ ⁠
We have, of course, reached the ringing chamber, and the book we’ve been seeking is Jasper Snowdon’s Diagrams (1881), published originally by the author and since 2011 by the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers. It is now in its fourteenth edition, and there is a copy in just about every tower with bells, not only in England but also in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and anywhere else in the world where change ringing is practised: America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand . . .’⁠
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Marianne Fisher on Jasper Snowdon’s Diagrams in Issue 68 of Slightly Foxed magazine. ‘Oranges and Lemons’, a wood engraving on seven endgrain boxwood blocks, by John Bryce appears alongside this article.

‘The Slightly Foxed office is now closed for Chr

‘The Slightly Foxed office is now closed for Christmas. Hazel and I have not seen the girls for months but we both know what the run-up to Christmas in the office is like – a sort of controlled hysteria as the postbags mount up, the phones keep ringing, and the website orders pour in. But we also know that they will have coped brilliantly and managed to remain cheerful too. Tomorrow morning we’re all going to get together on Zoom – the girls in London, Hazel in Highbury, Steph in West Sussex, Jennie in Norfolk, Aimi in Walthamstow and me up on Dartmoor. We’ll raise a glass to one another and a metaphorical glass to all our subscribers around the world who have kept us going in difficult times with orders and letters and messages of goodwill. Happy Christmas!’ Gail, Manaton, 22 December 2020⁠
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We can’t quite believe that we’re here already: Christmas is upon us and the end of 2020 is in sight. Yesterday, Anna, Hattie and Jess sent off the last orders from the Slightly Foxed office and locked up SF HQ for the final time in 2020. We plan to reopen on 4 January, subject to the Tier 4 lockdown restrictions currently in place in London and the surrounding area.⁠
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We have been completely overwhelmed by the kindness, understanding, and encouraging words from our readers this year. We are, as ever, grateful for the continuing flood of orders as they help our small business to keep going, and we value your continued support. We all wish you a very Merry Christmas and a restful last week of the year. Here’s to a better 2021!⁠
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While we take a short break, if you’re looking for a Slightly Foxed fix, please do head over to our blog on the SF website (foxedquarterly.com/blog) to catch up on all manner of Foxed news, including diary entries from SF editors Gail and Hazel, and a number of articles from the quarterly which are free to read for all. You can also sign up to our email newsletter and have our cheering missives and other Slightly Foxed updates delivered straight to your inbox. What a treat!

Coralie Bickford-Smith, ‘Winter’s Dance’⁠

Coralie Bickford-Smith, ‘Winter’s Dance’⁠
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@coraliebickfordsmith is one of the most renowned designers in the publishing industry, especially recognized and celebrated for her illustrated covers of @penguinukbooks’s clothbound classics. Her first book, The Fox and the Star, was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2015. Her third book, The Song of the Tree, is a lyrical, heart-warming new tale about a bird that loves to sing in the towering tree at the heart of the jungle.⁠
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‘Winter’s Dance’ appears on the cover of Issue 68 of Slightly Foxed magazine. For more of her work visit www.cb-smith.com or follow her on Instagram @coraliebickfordsmith.

‘Laurie Lee’s Slad and Stroud can still be fou

‘Laurie Lee’s Slad and Stroud can still be found in small corners and brief moments . . .’⁠
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‘Even in summer, the valleys provide a uniquely rugged contrast to the otherwise quaint villages of the Cotswolds – it’s near impossible to go for a stroll here without finding yourself a little out of breath. Though he was sure that they wouldn’t be, Laurie Lee’s Slad and Stroud can still be found in small corners and brief moments; in the markets on a Saturday, when orchard owners arrive with cider and crates filled with apples; in the pubs, crammed full with locals listening to music, celebrating and commiserating, making plans and drinking pints; in the hedgerows, still heavy with ripe fruit as summer moves into autumn; at Christmas, when parades wind through the town, and parties and dances are held in the town hall; and in the distinctive curve of each and every street, in this town that I have made my home.⁠
‘We passed Stroud at last and climbed the valley road, whose every curve our bodies recognized, whose every slant we leaned to, though still half asleep, till we woke to the smell of our houses.’’ Kate Young (@bakingfiction) in her preface to the Slightly Foxed Edition of Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie, illustrated by John Ward.⁠
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Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie is the new Slightly Foxed Edition for Winter 2020 and is available to order on the SF website: foxedquarterly.com

’Books are good company, in sad times and happy

’Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.’ E. B. White ⁠
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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 – are perfectly designed to curl up with. These reissues of classic memoirs are highly individual and absorbing reads bring alive a particular moment, allow you into someone else’s world and make you feel you have actually known the writer. Often these books light up a period in a way no history book can, just the ticket as we hunt for cosy reading while we look forward to the Christmas break.⁠
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Parcels and packages of bookish gems are still flying out of Hoxton Square to readers at a great rate and, whether they are handsome presents for a fellow bibliophile or tempting reads that have caught your eye this season, we do hope they bring much needed literary cheer.

This year, more than ever, has shown how important

This year, more than ever, has shown how important it is to support and champion local and independent bookshops. For our latest Bookshop of the Quarter, it is our great pleasure to head north to Edinburgh and pay a virtual visit to the latest bookshop in the Topping & Co family @toppingsedin. Tilly from the shop has kindly provided us with a good dose of bookish sustenance. The shop is open for browsing to local readers, and we hope to explore the handcrafted bookcases in person when we can . . . .⁠⠀
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‘The consensus here is that all our bookselling endeavours have been driven by a fierce love of literature. Being able to share our passion for books on a daily basis with people from all walks of life truly is the best part of bookselling. There is something unique about the power of books to expand the imagination, foster empathy and spark curiosity – to be surrounded by these miraculous objects every day is a joy.⁠⠀
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We are the largest independent bookshop to open in Scotland for thirty years and the newest addition to our family-run bookshops in Bath, Ely and St Andrews. We sit just below the historic Calton Hill in a beautiful Grade A-listed William Playfair building, of which Pevsner wrote, ‘it is so curious and extravagant that the wonder is it was built at all’.⁠⠀
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Our handcrafted bookcases hold over 70,000 titles, including a wonderful array of signed first editions from some of the world’s best loved authors. With rolling library ladders, knowledgeable and friendly booksellers, and complimentary pots of tea and coffee while you browse, it is a paradise for the true bibliophile.’ Tilly, Bookseller, Topping & Co. Edinburgh⁠⠀
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