Slightly Foxed

Slightly Foxed
Issue 58
EditorHazel Wood and Gail Pirkis
CategoriesLiterature, books
FrequencyQuarterly
PublisherSlightly Foxed
Paid circulation10,000[1]
Founded2004
CountryUnited Kingdom
Based inHoxton, London
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.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's offices are based at Hoxton Square, London, N1.

  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.