Slightly Foxed Issue 63

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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: Patrick Welland joins the British Council • Jacqueline Wilson puts on her ballet shoes • Michael Barber looks back with gratitude • Miranda Seymour relishes the twilight hour • Christopher Rush agrees ’tis better to have loved and lost • Sue Gee enjoys life without handlebars • Anthony Longden suffers with Lord Alanbrooke • Linda Leatherbarrow remembers Penelope Fitzgerald • Sue Gaisford hears the sound of chariots • Tim Mackintosh-Smith puts a tyger in his tank • Ysenda Maxtone Graham finds time for rhyme, and much more besides . . .

Adrift on the Tides of War • PATRICK WELLAND on Olivia Manning’s Balkan trilogy

Hands off the Handlebars • SUE GEE on Roald Dahl, Boy

One of the Regulars • LINDA LEATHERBARROW on Penelope Fitzgerald, The Means of Escape

’Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost? • CHRISTOPHER RUSH on Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam

The Sound of Chariots • SUE GAISFORD on The Roman Britain novels of Rosemary Sutcliff

Porridge and the Shorter Catechism • MORAG MACINNES on F. M. McNeill, The Scots Kitchen

Challenging the Old Gang • MICHAEL BARBER on Noel Annan, Our Age

Hauntings • MICHÈLE ROBERTS on Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

Hitting the Nail on the Head • YSENDA MAXTONE GRAHAM on the poetry of Jan Struther

The Twilight Hour • MIRANDA SEYMOUR on Peter Davidson, The Last of the Light

At War with Churchill • ANTHONY LONGDEN on Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, War Diaries

Lost in the Fens • JULIE WELCH on the detective stories of Edmund Crispin

Winning on Points • JACQUELINE WILSON on Noel Streatfeild, Ballet Shoes

Word Magic • TIM MACKINTOSH-SMITH on Becoming a writer

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 quarterly full of delights and articles about books new and old, published and out of print, beautifully illustrated and written by excellent authors.’ Random Jottings

‘The business of reading should please the hand and eye as well as the brain, and Slightly Foxed editions – books or quarterly – are elegant creations. Content follows form, offering new discoveries and old favourites to curious and discriminating readers. ’ Hilary Mantel

‘Slightly Foxed is a very civilized way to appreciate books and writers. No shouting, no hype, just beautifully presented enthusiasms, most of which are irresistible.’ Michael Palin

Slightly Foxed Issue 63: From the Editors

Gail Pirkis & Hazel Wood

September has crept up on us; it won’t be long before we’re thinking about Christmas (our new festive foxed card, the fifth in the series, is now out) and here in the office there’s that...

Hands off the Handlebars

Sue Gee on Roald Dahl, Boy

Throughout his work – James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Fantastic Mr Fox (1970), Danny, The Champion of the World (1975), The Twits (1980), The BFG (1982)...

Adrift on the Tides of War

Patrick Welland on Olivia Manning’s Balkan trilogy

It is an irony that the dramatization of a novel may deter not spur. Instead of leading the viewer to the book, it becomes a substitute. Such a fate appears to have befallen Olivia Manning’s...

One of the Regulars

Linda Leatherbarrow on Penelope Fitzgerald, The Means of Escape

At the back of Penelope Fitzgerald’s only short-story collection, The Means of Escape (2000), there is a charming black-and-white photograph of the author. It shows her buttoned into a...

Cover Artist: Slightly Foxed Issue 63, Louise O’Hara, ‘Wandering by the Light of the Moon’

Louise O’Hara

Louise O’Hara is a professional mixed media artist based in the heart of Cheshire. Her style has been described as quintessentially English, romantic and nostalgic. The work she produces is...

’Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost?

Christopher Rush on Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam

Tennyson’s In Memoriam (1850) is a poem about love and death, the two things which change all things – which is a powerful reason for reading what happens to be a powerful piece of writing, one...

Word Magic

Tim Mackintosh-Smith on becoming a writer

Are writers born or bred? One of my grandfathers was a poet – an exact contemporary of Kipling, though rather less famous. His main contribution to literature was the invention of the poetry...

The Eagle of the Ninth | The dark hour before the dawn

‘The best kind of historical fiction, far too good to be limited to children’s bookshelves’ We are pleased to announce the publication of two new titles in the Slightly Foxed Cubs series of...

Winning on Points

Jacqueline Wilson on Noel Streatfeild, Ballet Shoes

The first book I ever bought for myself was Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. I’ve bought thousands more books since, but Ballet Shoes is still a very special favourite. It hasn’t been out of...

The Sound of Chariots

Sue Gaisford on the Roman Britain novels of Rosemary Sutcliff

Rosemary Sutcliff knew about chariots. In the first of her four Roman books, The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), her young hero, the centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila, politely suggests to his British...

Porridge and the Shorter Catechism

Morag MacInnes on F. M. McNeill, The Scots Kitchen

Florence Marian McNeill, known as Floss, understood the importance of regional dishes. You may know her better as a folklorist; but without The Scots Kitchen, first published in 1929, she’d never...

Challenging the Old Gang

Michael Barber on Noel Annan, Our Age

As a beneficiary of the Welfare State and the Permissive Society – to name just two of their life-enhancing achievements – I owe an enormous debt to the liberal intelligentsia who, in the teeth...

Hauntings

Michèle Roberts on Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

Aged 14, I read Gaudy Night simply as a tantalizing romance masquerading as a thriller. Rereading it now I see it as a ghost story, its form demanded by its subject matter. The ghosts float across...

Hitting the Nail on the Head

Ysenda Maxtone Graham on the poetry of Jan Struther

1. Jan Struther, the well-known and successful writer, lecturer, radio performer etc. (with a subdivision called Jan Struther, the much-too-little-known and really pretty terrific serious poet whose...

The Twilight Hour

Miranda Seymour on Peter Davidson, The Last of the Light

Davidson’s book offers us a series of intense, lyrical and surprisingly moving meditations on landscapes, buildings and mythical settings, as seen at the close of day through the eyes of painters...

At War with Churchill

Anthony Longden on Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, War Diaries

The date is 28 September 1939. The author cannot know that what he will record in this 15-shilling notebook – and the many that follow it over the next six years – will become an astonishing...

Lost in the Fens

Julie Welch on the detective stories of Edmund Crispin

Should you really never judge a book by its cover? Had I gone along with that dictum years ago I would not have happened upon Edmund Crispin. Shameful though it is to admit it, I was attracted not by...