We will soon be ten! Indeed, we can’t quite believe it ourselves, but the publication of our 41st issue in March will mark a decade in print. Whilst here in the office we look ever forward to the new publications and celebrations the coming years will bring, the chance discovery of the printers’ delivery note for Issue 1 of Slightly Foxed has cast our minds back to how it all began. As Gail and Hazel wrote in their first editorial in the spring of 2004:
‘Welcome to the first issue of ‘Slightly Foxed’, the magazine for adventurous readers – people who want to explore beyond the familiar territory of the national review pages and magazines, and who are interested in books that last rather than those that are simply fashionable. We plan to bring you, each quarter, a selection of books that have passed the test of time, that have excited, fascinated or influenced our contributors, and to which they return for pleasure, comfort or escape; the kind of books that sell steadily and quietly to those who know about them . . . in other words, to strike a blow for lasting quality, for the small and individual against the corporate and mass-produced – and we are delighted that you have decided to join us.’
A decade later, going strong, this is still our ethos and we give thanks to you for your support along the way. Some of you have been with us from the beginning; others are new to the Fox but we appreciate you all. The Spring issue, whose pages are currently being folded, trimmed and nipped at the printers in Yorkshire, will soon be with us, but meantime let us elope to Edwardian Egypt with Priscilla Napier in her memoir, A Late Beginner, one of ‘Debo’, Duchess of Devonshire’s favourite books.