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Slightly Foxed Issue 50
  • Thumbnail of Slightly Foxed Issue 50
  • Thumbnail of Slightly Foxed Issue 50
  • Thumbnail of Slightly Foxed Issue 50
  • Thumbnail of Slightly Foxed Issue 50
  • Thumbnail of Slightly Foxed Issue 50
  • ISBN: 9781906562878
  • Pages: 96
  • Dimensions: 210 x 148mm
  • Illustrations: B/W
  • Publication date: 1 June 2016
  • Producer: Smith Settle
  • Cover artist: Clare Halifax, ‘Whitstable Lifeguard’
  • ISSN: 1742-5794
Made in Britain

Slightly Foxed Issue 50

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The independent-minded quarterly that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. Slightly Foxed introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine.

In this issue

Michael Holroyd enters the scary world of novelist Dan Rhodes • Liz Forsyth hits the trail that led to Brokeback Mountain • Richard Mabey shares Lesley Blanch’s gastronomic adventures • Sue Gee finds life is changing in 1930s rural England • Robin Blake follows Gulliver on his travels • Sue Gaisford discovers Who’s Who in Grunty Fen • Patrick Welland returns to the Raj with J. G. Farrell • Laura Freeman remembers the romance Elizabeth David preferred to forget • Gary Mead seeks a cure for depression • Alexandra Harris watches the making of a Shropshire garden . . .


Wilder Shores • RICHARD MABEY

Lesley Blanch, Round the World in Eighty Dishes

Shadows on the Green • SUE GEE

John Moore, Brensham Village

Travelling with Swift • ROBIN BLAKE

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

Distance and Desire • LIZ FORSYTH

E. Annie Proulx, Close Range: Wyoming Stories

The Islands Beyond • MARK VALENTINE

Robert Atkinson, Island Going

Rebellion at the Residency • PATRICK WELLAND

J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur

Gateway to the East • SUE GAISFORD

Christopher South, The Authorised Guide to Grunty Fen

To Hell and Back • MICHAEL HOLROYD

The novels of Dan Rhodes

An Irishman in Somalia • JUSTIN MAROZZI

Gerald Hanley, Warriors

Chekhov and Oysters • LAURA FREEMAN

Charles Gibson-Cowan, The Voyage of the Evelyn Hope

Casting Out Fear • GARY MEAD

Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Romance of the Road • ALAN MUNRO

Cecil Roberts, And So to Bath

In Spite of Everything • DAVID SPILLER

James Cameron, An Indian Summer

The Mark of Cain • JOHN CONYNGHAM

Herman Charles Bosman, Cold Stone Jug

A Garden Litany • ALEXANDRA HARRIS

Katherine Swift, The Morville Hours

Mr Cattermole’s Successors • MAGGIE FERGUSSON

On the Royal Society of Literature


About Slightly Foxed

The independent-minded quarterly that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. Slightly Foxed introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine. Read more about Slightly Foxed.

‘A much-valued focal point for a literary world that most people had assumed had vanished forever – one that eschews most modern publishing trends, pretty much rejects the persuasions of profit-led publicity and marketing strategies for sub-standard books and instead concentrates on the traditional core values of enduring literary talent and exceptional writing.’ Caught by the River

‘Any bookworms not already familiar with this excellent periodical should give it a try.’ John Sandoe Books



Slightly Foxed Issue 50: From the Editors

We had quite a celebration for our tenth anniversary in 2014 and now this summer we’ve reached what feels to us like another significant milestone – our 50th issue. You could say Slightly Foxed...

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Stac Lee

Mark Valentine explored the Isles and wild seas with Robert Atkinson in his article on Island Going in Slightly Foxed Issue 50, beautifully illustrated by Paul Kershaw’s woodcut of Stac Lee, home...

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Peacock Garden

‘Swift knows about containment and spillage. It’s the basic dynamic of her garden. In summer the plants billow out over the clipped box hedges that mark the borders, and roses ramble profusely...

Read more

Slightly Foxed Issue 50: From the Editors

We had quite a celebration for our tenth anniversary in 2014 and now this summer we’ve reached what feels to us like another significant milestone – our 50th issue. You could say Slightly Foxed...

Read more

Cover Artist: Slightly Foxed Issue 50, Clare Halifax, ‘Whitstable Lifeguard’

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When Brensham Hill puts on his hat . . .

Almost every morning of their lives the weather-wise people of Elmbury lift up their eyes to glance at Brensham Hill which rises solitary out of the vale, four miles away as the crow flies . . .

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Shadows on the Green

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Wilder Shores

I slipped into the world of Lesley Blanch’s swashbuckling cookbook, Round the World in Eighty Dishes (1955), before I’d even heard of it. It was the early ’60s, and I was on my first visit to...

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Travelling with Swift

Among quite a few things Gulliver’s Travels has in common with Alice in Wonderland, one in particular would have surprised their authors: each jumped nimbly across the boundary of their assumed...

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Distance & Desire

Close Range collects eleven of Proulx’s short stories, all set at various points in the previous century on the ‘dangerous and indifferent ground’ of the author’s home state of Wyoming. It is...

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The Islands Beyond

Here, I knew at once, was a skilful writer who took joy in what he made. The book proved to be about two students barely out of their teens who go off to look for a bird: to be exact, Leach’s...

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Rebellion at the Residency

The Siege of Krishnapur is a tremendous read. Amid the laconic humour and enthralling action, serious questions are asked about the wisdom of accepted ideas and the ownership of possessions both...

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Gateway to the East

Grunty Fen has long been a source of mystery. For years it lurked in the dusty lumber-room of memory, unvisited and all but forgotten, its faint miasma lingering slightly, if unpleasantly, until all...

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To Hell and Back

Do you know the novels of Dan Rhodes? I ask because his books would appeal, I believe, to many readers. But he avoids journalism, does not belong to any literary groups or contemporary schools of...

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An Irishman in Somalia

Can a book save one’s life? I used to think so when stationed in Mogadishu, avoiding thoughts of murder or suicide in that sunburnt madness only by immersing myself in Gerald Hanley’s Warriors...

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Chekhov and Oysters

The night the Evelyn Hope sailed from Hamble, there were sausages, potatoes and fried tomatoes cooked on a Primus stove for dinner. The captain opened a bottle of beer. It took three days for the...

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Casting Out Fear

Man’s Search for Meaning has apparently sold more than 10 million copies and been published in 24 languages. It is, according to the Library of Congress, one of the ‘ten most influential books in...

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Romance of the Road

For anyone interested in places and their associations And So to Bath (1940) is a gem. Writing at the end of the 1930s under the shadow of war and in a succession of stages along the road’s hundred...

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In Spite of Everything

If anything, my experience with James Cameron’s book An Indian Summer (1974) demonstrates the need for magazines like Slightly Foxed. In the 1980s I was working in India as the British Council’s...

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The Mark of Cain

For me as a teenager, reading voraciously on the Natal sugar farm that was then my home, what gave Herman Charles Bosman an edge over other writers was that he was a murderer. That he was also one of...

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A Garden Litany

From about the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, anyone who could afford it owned a ‘book of hours’ and kept it close at hand for daily use. It contained the prayers of the divine offices to...

Read more

Mr Cattermole’s Successors

In the autumn of 1991, I started working for the Royal Society of Literature, one of the strangest and most beguiling organizations in London. Nobody, not even Roy Jenkins, its President, seemed to...

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Comments & Reviews

Leave your review

  1. Lavinia Greacen says:

    As the biographer of J.G. Farrell, whom Patrick Welland is writing about so perceptively at present, how can I resist ordering the relevant editions! I already have the Spring one safely, thank you. Can I pay for the next two now, starting with 1 June? Hooked now on Slightly Foxed, I could then take out an annual sub for 2017. Best wishes from the Dublin mountains, Lavinia.

    • Slightly Foxed says:

      Hello Lavinia. We’re delighted that you are so taken with Patrick Welland’s words, and Slightly Foxed itself! You can either call us here in the office or pop through an email to [email protected] and place an order for both the summer issue (published 1 June) and autumn issue (published September 1). And we’re so pleased that you would like to take out an annual subscription – you can begin a subscription with any issue you wish, be it this summer issue, or with the spring issue (March 2017) as you suggest. The choice is yours. Many thanks for your kind words, and happy reading! With all good wishes from the Hoxton office, Anna.

  2. J. I'Anson, Herefordshire says:

    Dear Editors, May I congratulate you on your quarterly magazine, in particular the wood engraving on page 33 of issue 50. Each time I turn to it I seem to see the sea gulls actually circling around the stack. On a more whimsical note, there seems to be an elderly, rather sad man peering at me from near the top of the stack. Yours in appreciation

  3. M. O'Malley, Birmingham says:

    Many thanks for the reminder, and congratulations on your 50th edition. Still enjoyable and informative, and an essential aid to helping add variety to my reading. Keep up the good work!

  4. C. Thomson, East Renfrewshire says:

    Once again I received with great joy the summer edition of Slightly Foxed. Not only the journey down the literary road of authors, books and great characters, but as a true bibliophile, the look, feel and smell of your quarterly makes an old man truly happy. But, enough with the fetishes, I only write to say, in these troubled financial times you have my continued support.

  5. C. Fitzgibbon, Dublin says:

    Hello! I read the article about The Morville Hours in the latest issue. I had actually heard the book on my i-Pod, but realised it is only a shadow of the original: no reference to liturgical hours, history or really anthing else apart from gardening notes. The ipod version seems to be just a collection of articles from the Observer and other newspapers! So I am delighted to have read the SF article and have now got the book from the library and really look forward to reading it visually!!!

  6. D. Meen, Canada says:

    Greetings from Canada: Many thanks for your new book — always a great treat. Congratulations on your fabulous quarterly, I always look forward to it with great anticipation. Have a great summer.

  7. H. Pierce, County Kildare says:

    Many congratulations on making your 50th issue. I have enjoyed each and every one and on many occasions have come across books referred to (out of print) at book sales and in second hand shops – a real treat when this happens! Thank you for also reducing your subscription price to Irish readers – greatly appreciated. I hope that we shall both be around to enjoy your 100th issue.

  8. S. & J. Bidwell, County Cork says:

    This summer’s edition of Slightly Foxed held great news for us – the reduction of postage charges to Ireland. For the past few years it has been my husband’s Christmas present to me, and on moving to Ireland we were rather downcast to realise how much more the postage was to be. Thank you for this excellent decision – we only wish more book suppliers would follow your example. With best wishes for your continued success’

  9. A. Cooper, New Zealand says:

    Hi all, especially Gail and Hazel. I have just returned to New Zealand (where at least the rain has stopped for a while) . . . On my return I found the summer issue awaiting me; I have been reading it this afternoon in front of the fire! . . . It is rather pleasant being in the other hemisphere and hearing about the weather in the north, even if a little discombobulating at times; it felt quite wrong to be eating fresh raspberries in May, they are a Christmas treat for us! I am supposed to be reducing my library but I may just have to buy one or two books from the summer list . . . too enticing for words! Wishing you all a splendid summer.

  10. P. Schroder, London says:

    Happy 50th issue! And of course it’s as lovely as ever – and this time full of new tempting & exciting extra goodies!

  11. M. Woledge, Australia says:

    Dear all at Slightly Foxed, I just wanted to say a huge ‘thank you!’ for giving subscribers access to your digital edition and full archive. I’ve been eagerly devouring some of your very early editions and thoroughly enjoying them. It’s great to see how your magazine has evolved over its 50 issues, and also discover many more classic books to add to my reading list. I was also very excited to see an excerpt from my recent email to you in the ‘our readers write’ section of your newsletter. Keep up the great work!

  12. S. Erber, New Zealand says:

    Dear All, the gloom of winter was lifted by the arrival this week of no. 50. It always hits the right spot. Rem acu tetigisti as Jeeves would have said . . . I’ll raise a glass to your 50th tonight. Cheers

  13. T. Hunt, Cumbra says:

    It was even more of a pleasure than usual to receive my summer edition having been one of the fortunate subscribers to visit the printers in Yorkshire and see the copies of SF rolling off the presses. My thanks to all who organised the visit and for giving us the chance to meet members of the team – including Chudleigh. This edition seems to have had the further benefit of being a harbinger of good weather!

    I am enjoying being able to savour the relatively rare delight of being able to read SF in the sunshine in my Cumbrian garden. With many thanks for all you do.

  14. P. Eastlake, Northumberland says:

    It doesn’t seem to be over 12 years since my first ever SF magazine – it was so different from anything that I had had before and introduced me to so many wonderful books (ABEBooks must be very happy with me). Now I have a full shelf of your wonderful publications. And with 35 SF editions, I will soon need a new bookshelf. I have just received both the magazine and SF edition today – always a real treat, and, I must admit, an opportunity to take a deep inhalation from the little tome. Here’s to the next 50! Congratulations. Cheers

  15. L. Anslow, Surrey says:

    Thank you for Number 50; just arrived. I look forward, as ever, to rationing reading of it rather than all-in-one-go consumption!

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