Here in the Slightly Foxed office the passage of the seasons is marked not so much by changes in the weather as changes in the number of books and issues piled up in what seems like an ever-diminishing space. At the beginning of each quarter it’s often quite tricky to negotiate a way round piles of the latest issue and the accompanying Slightly Foxed Edition, newly delivered by Smith Settle, our printers in Yorkshire. Our lovely office staff, Rebecca, Isabel, Edie and Ruth, run a very tight ship, but it’s a relief when the piles begin to shrink as new orders arrive and books and issues are sent out.
The months leading up to Christmas are usually, of course, the busiest and this year Les Girls, our Winter Slightly Foxed Edition (see p.13), is highly recommended as light relief in anxious times. Its author Constance Tomkinson, the daughter of a Canadian Nonconformist minister who had already tried her luck as an actor after drama school in New York, was only 18 when, in 1937, she decided to try her luck again in Lon don. Constance was broke, hungry and inexperienced but she was up for anything and was delighted and frankly astonished to be offered a place in the chorus line of a touring company called the Millerettes which was about to leave for Sweden. Her delicious memoir tells the story of her year touring European cities, and is not only a wryly observed and very funny picture of the seedy world of the chorus line and the touching esprit de corps that kept the girls going, but also an unusual glimpse of Europe on the eve of the Second World War, not long before the curtain finally came down.
On 1 November we published another gloom-breaker, Love Divine, a first foray into fiction by Ysenda Maxtone Graham, already known to many readers for her hilarious bestseller Terms and Conditions. With an unsolved mystery at its heart, her sharply funny new novella takes us through the Church year, from New Year to Christmas, in Lamley Green, a leafy village on the edge of London which is temporarily without a rector. How the parish copes is told via a deft mixture of extracts from letters, texts, emails, prayers, sermons and Parish Council Minutes that hit the nail on the head every time. If you haven’t already ordered, now’s the moment.
It’s the moment too for our annual Christmas crossword, which you’ll find in the winter catalogue – good for those familiar moments over the festive season when, for some reason, there really seems nothing left to do. Entries should arrive with us by 15 January 2026 and the author of the first correct one drawn out of a hat will receive a free annual subscription.
And finally, dear readers, we send you every good wish for Christmas and the year to come. If, like some readers who write to us, you’re suffering withdrawal symptoms between issues, do tune in to our quarterly Slightly Foxed podcast. All past episodes of these lively personal conversations with authors and other literary folk are available to hear on our website. The most recent, which went out on 15 October, is about the Brontës, with Ann Dinsdale, principal curator of the Parsonage Museum at Haworth, as our guest.
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