Slightly Foxed

Last updated
Slightly Foxed
Slightly Foxed cover.png
Issue 58
EditorHazel Wood and Gail Pirkis
Categories Literature, books
FrequencyQuarterly
PublisherSlightly Foxed
Paid circulation10,000 [1]
Founded2004
CountryUnited Kingdom
Based in Hoxton, London
LanguageEnglish
Website www.foxedquarterly.com

Slightly Foxed is a British quarterly literary magazine. Its primary focus is books and book culture. It was established by former John Murray editors Hazel Wood and Gail Pirkis. [2] Notable authors to have written for the magazine include Penelope Lively, Richard Mabey, Diana Athill, Ronald Blythe and Robert Macfarlane. [3]

Instead of books currently marketed by big publishers, Slightly Foxed tends to examine older and more obscure titles. Its title comes from the term "slightly foxed" as a description of a book's physical quality, commonly used in the second-hand book trade to describe minor foxing, the occurrence of brown spots on older paper.

As well as the magazine itself, Slightly Foxed has a books imprint. [4] Original books published by the imprint include Philip Evans' Country Doctor's Common Place Book [5] [6] [7] and Charles Phillipson’s Letters to Michael (selected by the Telegraph as one of the best books of 2021). [8] The imprint has also reissued a number of classic works and children's books, including Rosemary Sutcliff's novels about Roman Britain and the Carey novels of Ronald Welch. [9]

Since 2014, the magazine has sponsored the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize for the best first biography or literary memoir published each year. [10] In 2023, the prize was won jointly by Katherine Rundell for her biography of John Donne, Super-Infinite, and Osman Yousefzada for his memoir The Go-Between. [11] Winners from previous years include Edmund Gordon for The Invention of Angela Carter [12] and Alan Cumming for Not My Father’s Son. [13]

In addition to the quarterly magazine, Slightly Foxed produces a podcast about books, book culture and writers. [14]

Between 2009 and 2016 Slightly Foxed ran a bookshop of the same name on London's Gloucester Road. [15]

The magazine offices are based in London.

Related Research Articles

<i>Granta</i> British literary magazine and publisher

Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated: "In its blend of memoirs and photojournalism, and in its championing of contemporary realist fiction, Granta has its face pressed firmly against the window, determined to witness the world."

Waterstones is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Murray (publishing house)</span> English publishing firm (est. 1768)

John Murray is a Scottish publisher, known for the authors it has published in its long history including Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, Edward Whymper, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, and Charles Darwin. Since 2004, it has been owned by conglomerate Lagardère under the Hachette UK brand.

The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by The Bookseller. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the National Book Awards from 2010 to 2014.

Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs to Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Hill Sports Book of the Year</span> Annual British sports literary award

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British sports literary award sponsored by bookmaker William Hill. The award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in sports writing. It was first awarded in 1989, and was devised by Graham Sharpe of William Hill, and John Gaustad, founder of the Sports Pages bookshop. As of 2020, the prize for winning the award is £30,000 and a leather-bound copy of their book. Each of the shortlisted authors receives £3,000.

The Waterstones Children's Book Prize is an annual award given to a work of children's literature published during the previous year. First awarded in 2005, the purpose of the prize is "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" and is therefore open only to authors who have published no more than two or three books, depending on which category they are in. The prize is awarded by British book retailer Waterstones.

Profile Books is a British independent book publishing firm founded in 1996. It publishes non-fiction subjects including history, biography, memoir, politics, current affairs, travel and popular science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Quarto Group</span> Illustrated book publishing group

The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Gareth Russell is a Northern Irish historian, author, and broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Forsyth</span> British writer

Mark Forsyth is a British writer of non-fiction who came to prominence with a series of books concerning the meaning and etymology of English words.

Lionel Leventhal is a British publisher of books on military history and related topics, whose eponymous company was established in 1967.

Owen Matthews is a British writer, historian and journalist. His first book, Stalin's Children, was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award, the Orwell Prize for political writing, and France's Prix Médicis Etranger. His books have been translated into 28 languages. He is a former Moscow and Istanbul Bureau Chief for Newsweek.

Laura Cumming is the art critic of The Observer newspaper, a position she has held since 1999. Before that she worked for The Guardian, the New Statesman and the BBC. In addition to her career in journalism, Cumming has written well-received books on self-portraits in art and the discovery of a lost portrait by Diego Velázquez in 1845. The Vanishing Man was a New York Times bestseller and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2016.

Katherine Rundell is an English author and academic. She is the author of Rooftoppers, which in 2015 won both the overall Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story, and was short-listed for the Carnegie Medal. She is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and has appeared as an expert guest on BBC Radio 4 programmes including Start the Week, Poetry Please, Seriously.... and Private Passions.

James Heneage is a British historical fiction writer, and the co-founder of the Ottakar’s bookshop chain and the Chalke Valley History Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roshani Chokshi</span> American novelist

Roshani Chokshi is an American children's book author and a New York Times bestselling author.

Alex Christofi is a British author and book editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Parker (author)</span> British writer (born 1954)

Peter Parker is a British biographer, historian, journalist and editor. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997.

The University of New South Wales Press Ltd. is an Australian academic book publishing company launched in 1962 and based in Randwick, a suburb of Sydney. The ACNC not-for-profit entity has three divisions: NewSouth Publishing, NewSouth Books, and the UNSW Bookshop, situated at the Kensington campus of the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The press is currently a member of the Association of University Presses.

References

  1. "A Celebration of Slightly Foxed Readers". Official website. Retrieved 13 June 2023
  2. "Outfoxing the digital revolution". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  3. Slightly Foxed: A Potted History Official website. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  4. Our Books Official website. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  5. Jones, Roger (2018-11-29). "Books: A Country Doctor's Commonplace Book: Wonders and Absurdities". British Journal of General Practice. 68 (677): 585.2–585. doi:10.3399/bjgp18x700085. ISSN   0960-1643. PMC   6255243 . PMID   30498155.
  6. Berkmann, Marcus (2018-11-22). "Top of the Christmas lists". The Spectator. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  7. Thorpe, Vanessa (2018-12-02). "GP's diary of the absurd set to be surprise festive hit". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  8. Writers, Telegraph (2021-12-22). "The 75 best books of 2021 to read this winter". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  9. Barnes, Clive (2016-12-01). "A View of War and Soldiering in the Carey Novels of Ronald Welch". Children's Literature in Education. 47 (4): 300–324. doi:10.1007/s10583-015-9269-8. ISSN   1573-1693. S2CID   254377824.
  10. "The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize | The Biographers' Club". The Biographer's Club. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  11. "Rundell and Yousefzada scoop Slightly Foxed prize". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  12. Leith, Sam (2018-03-07). "Angela Carter biography wins award". The Spectator. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  13. "Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize". ALAN CUMMING. 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  14. Dunn, Daisy (2020-11-05). "The shocking story of Charles and Mary Lamb: Slightly Foxed podcast reviewed". The Spectator. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  15. Slightly Foxed Bookshop to close at the end of the month The Bookseller. 11 January 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2016.