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: Sue Gee goes boating with Mole and Ratty • Jim Ring doesn’t mean to go to sea • Pauline Melville sets sail for Guyana • Grant McIntyre gathers herbs at Copsford • Rachel Cooke witnesses the war between the Tates • Justin Marozzi heads for the Hindu Kush • Alexandra Harris picks up a Pevsner • Andrew Ryan recalls boxing days • Olivia Potts masters the art of French cooking, and much more besides . . .
Voices from the Riverbank • SUE GEE on Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
An Understanding Heart • HAZEL WOOD on Flora Thompson, Over to Candleford & Candleford Green
In Nuristan with Carless • JUSTIN MAROZZI on Eric Newby, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
An Appetite for Looking • ALEXANDRA HARRIS on Susie Harries, Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life
Academic Affairs • RACHEL COOKE on Alison Lurie, The War Between the Tates
Unsuspected Depths • GRANT MCINTYRE on Walter J. C. Murray, Copsford
Of Captains and Khans • LESLEY DOWNER on Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game
Boxing Days • ANDREW RYAN on A. J. Liebling, The Sweet Science
Fifty Years On • MICHAEL BARBER on John Fowles, The Magus
Dem Bones • PAULINE MELVILLE on Edgar Mittelholzer, My Bones and My Flute
Guilty Pleasures • KEN HAIGH on Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee stories
Read, then Cook • OLIVIA POTTS on Julia Child et al., Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Lark, Hare, Stone • ROBIN BLAKE on the writings of Shane Connaughton
A Tale of Two Villages • WILLIAM PALMER on Norman Lewis, Voices of the Old Sea
Murder, Miracles and Myanmar • ALASTAIR GLEGG on the novels of F. Tennyson Jesse
Last of the Swallows • JIM RING on Arthur Ransome, We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea
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. More . . .
‘It’s always a red-letter day when the post includes Slightly Foxed – gorgeous new cover, choice list of contents. I always find one title I plan to read – or an old favourite I’d forgotten about. ’ Penelope Lively
- Curtis, Clare
- Jesse, F. Tennyson
- Connaughton, Shane
- Fowles, John
- Liebling, A. J.
- Ryan, Andrew
- Murray, Walter J. C.
- Cooke, Rachel
- Harries, Susie
- Robin, Clover
- Thompson, Flora
- Melville, Pauline
- Potts, Olivia
- Haigh, Ken
- Lewis, Norman
- Wood, Hazel
- Pirkis, Gail & Wood, Hazel
- Hopkirk, Peter
- Barber, Michael
- Blake, Robin
- Downer, Lesley
- Gee, Sue
- Grahame, Kenneth
- Lurie, Alison
- Harris, Alexandra
- McIntyre, Grant
- Marozzi, Justin
- Newby, Eric
- Palmer, William
- Ransome, Arthur
Slightly Foxed Issue 74: From the Editors
Summer is here and the square outside has come alive again. There are people walking their dogs or enjoying the sunshine at tables outside the café opposite the office. It’s a peaceful scene, but...
Read moreVoices from the Riverbank
‘Never read it?’ said the Rat in astonishment. ‘Never read it? Why, my dear fellow, you simply haven’t lived.’ ‘Is it really as good as all that?’ the Mole asked humbly. The Rat...
Read moreAn Understanding Heart
I can’t remember when I first read the magical trilogy that came to be known as Lark Rise to Candleford but, turning to it for comfort during the days of the 2020 lockdowns, I was struck afresh by...
Read moreIn Nuristan with Carless
Twenty years ago, I was due to give a talk at the Travellers Club about a recent expedition. I thought it would be much more entertaining for everyone if my friend Ned spoke about the perils of...
Read moreAn Appetite for Looking
‘Is Pevsner in the back?’ A familiar question from the driver when setting off for almost any destination in England – familiar not from my childhood (I don’t think there were Pevsners at...
Read moreAcademic Affairs
People tend to overstate the case when it comes to fiction and empathy: just as there are lots of nasty writers, there are also plenty of insensitive, clod-hopping readers. But still, novels can be...
Read moreUnsuspected Depths
My sister gave me Copsford (1948). It was clearly a book she loved, and its author – Walter Murray – was someone we’d once known. So it seemed odd I’d never heard of it. It’s a strange,...
Read moreOf Captains and Khans
Many years ago, when it was possible to do such things, I hitchhiked to India. I travelled through Iran and Afghanistan, saw the Great Buddhas at Bamiyan, and rode through the Khyber Pass on the roof...
Read moreBoxing Days
The jab that crunched into my nose before I had my guard up was a fine lesson in the importance of being prepared, but it is not a fond memory. Getting punched rarely is. A. J. Liebling, however,...
Read moreFifty Years On
If, as I did, you came of age in the Sixties, then one rite of passage you may have undergone was reading John Fowles’s bestselling Bildungsroman, The Magus (1965), which provided, it was said, an...
Read moreDem Bones
Some thirty years ago in the National Museum of Guyana, amidst the geological, archaeological and historical artefacts in their display cabinets, there existed a carefully cordoned-off empty space....
Read moreGuilty Pleasures
More often than not, a shelf of books is a statement about the person we wish to be. We carefully arrange the titles so our friends will gain a favourable impression of us, thinking that we are...
Read moreRead, then Cook
‘If you can read, you can cook.’ This was the simple, revolutionary philosophy behind Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961 and 1970), written by Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette...
Read moreLark, Hare, Stone
Memories of the British Empire may be receding around the world, but they live on in Ireland, the first and closest of Britain’s colonies. It is not hard to see why. For centuries all the...
Read moreA Tale of Two Villages
For many people in the countryside, life just after the Second World War had not changed so very much from a hundred years before. When I was a young boy in the 1950s our family lived in a small...
Read moreMurder, Miracles and Myanmar
As I had expected, I found the famous murder trials edited by Miss F. Tennyson Jesse on the shelves of the Law Library of the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island, but I was pleasantly...
Read moreLast of the Swallows
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the perfect happiness of progeny is achieved only in the absence of their parents. As such circumstances are normally attended by certain obvious practical...
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