‘This is a beautiful, sparkling book, a brief glimpse of a wild childhood that is recognizable even in its strangeness – he has captured the essence of youth, that delicate balance of happiness and misery.’
Greetings from Hoxton Square where we’re taking a deep breath among the boxes, following a bumper winter delivery of the new issue, books and goods from Smith Settle, and contemplating the joyful festive flurry that lies ahead.
The winter issue of Slightly Foxed is being sent out to subscribers this week and should soon begin to land on doormats around the world. With it you’ll find a copy of the winter Readers’ Catalogue which we hope will provide some useful and unusual suggestions for seasonal reading and present ideas.
Before we become tangled in ribbon and swaddled in wrapping paper, we thought it timely to browse our bookshelves and head to the windswept shores of Galloway for some bracing fresh air. This article by Galen O’Hanlon appeared as the preface to our limited hardback edition of Gavin Maxwell’s The House of Elrig.
Gavin Maxwell is best known for Ring of Bright Water, his moving account of raising otters on the remote west coast of Scotland. In his childhood memoir The House of Elrig he describes, with the same lyrical power that made that earlier book a classic, how it all began.
We hope you’ll enjoy reading Galen’s article. If you do, and are tempted to add The House of Elrig to your SF collection, then you’ll find links to this edition below, along with a selection of other autumn reading to brighten dark evenings.
With best wishes, as ever, from the SF office staff
Jennie, Anna, Hattie, Jess & Helen
– and the office dogs Chudleigh, Stanley, Tarka & Dusty