Slightly Foxed Issue 83

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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: Jim Ring is dazzled by Barbara Tuchman’s August 1914, Rachel Sherlock discovers Agatha Christie’s alter ego, David Fleming finds comfort in Housman’s poetry, Raffaella Barker remembers her extraordinary mother Elspeth, Jonathan Keates sees the end of Empire with Gwyn Griffin, Suzi Feay follows the child hero of Leon Garfield’s Smith to Georgian London, Michael Barber changes trains with Isherwood’s Mr Norris, Hazel Wood is delighted by Dorothy Whipple’s childhood memoir, Guy Stagg joins Patrick Leigh Fermor on retreat, Jane Ridley recalls the scandal of Crawfie and The Little Princesses, and much more besides . . .

Benefit of Clergy • SUE GAISFORD on Deborah Alun-Jones, The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory

The Getting of Wisdom • HAZEL WOOD on Dorothy Whipple, The Other Day

Casus Belli • JIM RING on Barbara Tuchman, August 1914

The Smell of Lavender Water • POSY FALLOWFIELD on Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

Marvellous Meals • RICHARD SMYTH on Maurice Sendak, Nutshell Library

A Shameless Old Reprobate • MICHAEL BARBER on Christopher Isherwood, Mr Norris Changes Trains

Small Crimes, Big Consequences • RACHEL SHERLOCK on Mary Westmacott, Absent in the Spring

So Far Yet So Near • RICHARD CROCKATT on Jane Austen, Persuasion

From World to World • NICK HUNT on William Golding, The Inheritors

Joining the Grown-Ups • BECKY TIPPER on Mary Norton, The Bread and Butter Stories

Studying to Be Quiet • GUY STAGG on Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time to Keep Silence

Live Fast, Die Young • SUZI FEAY on Leon Garfield, Smith

Not Utterly Oyster • JANE RIDLEY on Marion Crawford, The Little Princesses

Brits Behaving Badly • JONATHAN KEATES on the novels of Gwyn Griffin

The Land of Lost Content • DAVID FLEMING on A. E. Housman, Collected Poems

Counting My Chickens • RAFFAELLA BARKER on her mother Elspeth Barker’s writing life

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 . . .

Benefit of Clergy

Sue Gaisford on Deborah Alun-Jones, The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory

Recently we were invited to dinner with friends in their lovely old vicarage. It was a cold night but there was a cosiness about the place, echoed by the warmth of our French hostess as she welcomed...

The Getting of Wisdom

Hazel Wood on Dorothy Whipple, The Getting of Wisdom

‘If only people knew about Dorothy Whipple, I feel their lives would be so enriched,’ I remember the founder of Persephone Books remarking thoughtfully when I interviewed her for a profile of the...

Casus Belli

Jim Ring on Barbara Tuchman, August 1914

War is a good subject for students of human nature. You might even write a book about it. Barbara Tuchman did, calling it August 1914. An encyclopaedic account of the opening month of the First World...

The Smell of Lavender Water

Posy Fallowfield on Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

If you, dear reader, should happen to be the wrong side of 70, should perchance have lost your life partner, should occasionally in the small hours have slippery thoughts about what life might hold...

Marvellous Meals

Richard Smyth on Maurice Sendak, The Nutshell Library

Everyone knows that in 1963 Maurice Sendak wrote a masterpiece in ten sentences (37 pages, 338 words, beginning with ‘The night Max wore his wolf suit . . .’). That was Where the Wild Things Are...

A Shameless Old Reprobate

Michael Barber on Christopher Isherwood, Mr Norris Changes Trains

In 1977 I interviewed Christopher Isherwood about his memoir, Christopher and His Kind. During the interview he said how much he regretted burning the diaries he had kept while living in Berlin in...

Small Crimes, Big Consequences

Rachel Sherlock on Mary Westmacott, Absent in the Spring

Even the most beloved authors are not necessarily remembered for the works they themselves considered their best. Famously, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his Sherlock Holmes stories begrudgingly, and was...

So Far Yet So Near

Richard Crockatt on Jane Austen, Persuasion

You do not have to be a paid-up member of the Janeite club to find yourself returning repeatedly to her novels. The urge to idolize Jane Austen is understandable but (in the spirit of the author...

From World to World

Nick Hunt on William Golding, The Inheritors

We are observing a group of people trying to find a log. The log is not where they left it. They have been away for some time. Now it is not where it was, and they are perturbed. It is, we gather, a...

Joining the Grown-ups

Becky Tipper on Mary Norton, The Bread and Butter Stories

I’ve been reading The Borrowers books with my daughter. I loved them when I was her age, and it’s been a joy to rediscover Mary Norton’s tales of these tiny people who live alongside humans....

Studying to Be Quiet

Guy Stagg on Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time to Keep Silence

Midway through my twenties, I spent the best part of a year walking across Europe. Often I passed the night with monks, nuns or religious communities, arriving on their doorstep to ask for shelter. I...

Live Fast, Die Young

Suzi Feay on Leon Garfield, Smith

Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and Rosemary Sutcliff offer stiff competition; nevertheless I can’t help thinking that Smith (1967) by Leon Garfield might just be the single most accomplished novel for...

Not Utterly Oyster

Jane Ridley on Marion Crawford, The Little Princesses

I first picked up Marion Crawford’s The Little Princesses (1950) a few years ago, when I was preparing for a television documentary on the early life of Queen Elizabeth II. Even then, reading in a...

Brits Behaving Badly

Jonathan Keates on the novels of Gwyn Griffin

The decayed spa town where I grew up during the 1950s was full of people who had been ‘out in’ somewhere or other across the British Empire. If those two semi-detached prepositions denoted...

The Land of Lost Content

David Fleming on A. E. Housman, Collected Poems

Nineteen twenty-two was a good year for poetry. It saw the publication of two very different works which would prove to be of lasting popularity – A. E. Housman’s Last Poems, and T. S. Eliot’s...

Counting My Chickens

Raffaella Barker on the writing of Elspeth Barker

My extraordinary mother, the writer Elspeth Barker, died in April 2022. She left this life on a balmy, sunny afternoon, just as if she was wandering down through her garden to the river with her...