Slightly Foxed

Marvellous Meals There are four books in Sendak’s Nutshell Library: the cautionary tale Pierre, the ‘book of months’ Chicken Soup with Rice . . .

I wrote a bit about this for @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social (though it's mostly paywalled, sorry). About how meaningful the act of eating is for Sendak ("well eat you up, we love you so!"). foxedquarterly.com/richard-smyt...

A lovely write up of our latest Slightly Foxed Edition: Les Girls by Constance Tomkinson.

foxedquarterly.com/shop/constan...

Loved loved LOVED Dick Francis.

British Library acquires archive of rural life writer and essayist Ronald Blythe Exclusive: Collection includes workbooks and index cards, and papers that show his research for bestseller Akenfield

Reminded, by a newsletter from @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social, that Ronald Blythe, whose archive has been acquired by the British Library (theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/12/british-library-acquires-archive-ronald-blythe), figures himself in the Slightly Foxed archive: foxedquarterly.com/ronald-blyth....

How lovely to see such an impressive collection of Slightly Foxed Quarterlies!

What a fantastic Slightly Foxed collection! We're delighted to see it 🦊📚

Episode 56 | The Thrilling World of Dick Francis

🎧 OUT NOW 🎧

foxedquarterly.com/dick-francis...

The cover of the winter 2025 Slightly Foxed quarterly. The red fox is running left to right through snow and past three representative fir-type trees.

@ccmatters.bsky.social read and enjoyed (of course), I can turn my attention to @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social, also awaiting my return from warmer climes. Yes, that’s a blanket it is photographed against, a blanket I am sitting under as I settle in. I expect to be rewarded.

Coming 1 December from @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social editions:
Les Girls, Constance Tomkinson's rollicking (and for once, this is not just blurb-ese) memoir of life as a chorus girl in 1930s Europe, with an introduction by yours truly. A wonderful Christmas treat!
foxedquarterly.com/shop/constan...

Always a good day when my copy of @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social
‘Slightly Foxed’ arrives.

Looking forward to each & every item, especially ‘The Secret Life of Second-hand Books’ 📚📚📚

#slightlyfoxed #bibliophile

Slightly Foxed Issue 88 In this issue: Laurie Graham relishes a story of mushrooms and murder • Sam Leith pays homage to The Once and Future King . . .

Thanks to @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social for including my piece on Peter Ross's Steeple Chasing in the upcoming winter Foxed Quarterly.

foxedquarterly.com/shop/slightl...

💠The @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social Autumn 2025 cover features this stunning piece by artist Melita Denaro!

🖼️ 'They shall not grow old, Remembrance, November' (2018)

👀 Browse the complete Slightly Foxed archive on Exact Editions.

Out now!

foxedquarterly.com/shop/constan...

Text says 'Gibbons sensibly realized that laughing is, for some people, braver and more radical therapy than any obtained through psycho-analysis or counselling. Many people mistakenly believe that having a laugh means that one is not taking things seriously. On the contrary There is no better way of approaching a grim and desperately serious topic, in my opinion, than by cracking a joke.' Michele Hanson – 'Poste-Freudian Therapy' on Stella Gibbons, in Slightly Foxed No.10 Summer 2006

'Many people mistakenly believe that having a laugh means that one is not taking things seriously. On the contrary There is no better way of approaching a grim and desperately serious topic, in my opinion, than by cracking a joke.' – Michele Hanson in @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social No.10

OUT NOW: Love Divine by Ysenda Maxtone Graham

With her usual consummate skill, Maxtone Graham, well-known to readers of SF, brings together the members of this small community in a light-hearted but touching story.

Find out more:

foxedquarterly.com/shop/ysenda-maxtone-graham-love-divine

Love Divine by Ysenda Maxtone Graham Love Divine by Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Slightly Foxed, Foxed Quarterly, Book Review, 2025, Books Set in Small Communities, Church Life, Village Setting

Happy Publication Day! Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s book, Love Divine, comes out today with @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social If you enjoy books centred around village life that will make you laugh, and cry a bit too, then this one is for you. Find my full review of this wonderful book in the link below. ❤️

The Slightly Foxed Podcast Episode 55: At Home with The Brontës

There has never been a literary family quite like the Brontës. In our autumn podcast Ann Dinsdale, Curator of the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth in Yorkshire, joined the SF team to discuss the story of the family’s life there.

Thank you for sharing this piece!

Calling East Anglia dwellers and Adrian Bell fans for this exciting forthcoming event in Halesworth!

‘In one sense, words are our masters, or communication would be impossible; in another we are the masters, or there could be no poetry.’

Roger W Holmes quoted by Robin Blake in his splendidly thought-provoking essay ’Alice in the Margins’ in the latest @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social

Read most recent edition of @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social over long weekend. As usual, my TBR (or TB located/purchased) list expanded. Any book budget overruns I blame on @nonsuchbook.bsky.social, who pointed me to Slightly Foxed several years ago.

Who am I kidding? I have no book budget.

It's a conundrum we face every quarter too! Hope you enjoyed the latest issue. 🦊📖

Thank you for sharing this snippet from our latest issue! We hope you enjoyed the rest of SF 87.

Sound advice from the cleric Sydney Smith, courtesy of Stephen Bayley in this quarter’s Slightly Foxed @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social.

The cover of the current issue of Slightly Foxed, tinted for no reason I can gather. The original is tan.

This came @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social. Two essays about books/authors I have written about elsewhere. It’s making me feel particularly refined (or something). Here’s a link to one of mine, because it’s hard to resist the urge to plug my favorite work of mine: www.irishacademicpress.ie/product/loui...

Thank you for sharing!

text says: 10th. Make no secret of your low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely - they are always worse for dignified concealment. 9th. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you. 10th. Compare your lot with that of other people. 11th. Don't expect too much from human life - a sorry business at the best.12th. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy, sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion, not ending in active benevolence. 13th. Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree. 14th. Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.' Sydney Smith quoted by Stephen Bayley in 'Taking the Short View' in the latest Slightly Foxed - Autumn 2025

Sydney Smith on low spirits:
'Don't expect too much from human life - a sorry business at the best. Avoid...everything likely to excite feeling or emotion not ending in active benevolence.'

quoted by Stephen Bayley in 'Taking the Short View' in the latest @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social

Thank you for sharing this gorgeous photo and providing such a lovely article on Lucy M. Boston. The Green Knowe books were a much-treasured staple for many of us growing up and we are so happy to share your piece with our readers.

I’m delighted to have a piece on Louis MacNeice’s Autumn Journal in the latest issue of @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social.