Slightly Foxed #89: 'The consummate professional'

by Gail Pirkis (Editor), Hazel Wood (Editor)

96 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2026

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly Foxed edition no. 89 has the usual excellent mix of lively articles about books I’ve already read and loved, books I’d like to read, and books that I’m unlikely to read, but are fascinating to read about. Highlights include Rose Lyddon with a deeply personal take on Penelope Fitzgerald’s brilliant 1979 Booker winner Offshore, Andrew Joynes’s piece on Bruce Chatwin’s strange and claustrophobic tale of two Welsh farming brothers, On the Black Hill and Nick Hunt on Jack Black’s 1926 tale of life as a hobo on the US railroads, You Can’t Win.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A particularly good issue. It’s expensive, but I will never give up my subscription.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second edition of 'Slightly Foxed' that I have read since I recently subscribed, and it has delighted me as much as the first. Its eclectic selection of short book reviews is easy to read and has, as before, filled me full of ideas for my future reading, not to mention having inspired me in my searches of the shelves in second-hand book shops. I also particularly like the charming black and white thumbnails that liberally illustrate the reviews. I am a keen reader of professional reviews of recently published books as a way of informing myself and saving me from the expense and time-commitment of reading the books themselves. The beauty of the reviews in 'Slightly Foxed' is that they are of long-published books, often out of print, and make me want to read the full book itself. From the reviews in this edition I have already added Robert Gibbings 'Coming down the Wye', Bruce Chatwin 'On the Black Hill', Iris Murdoch 'A Fairly Honourable Defeat' and Nigel Kneale 'The Quatermass Experiment' to my wish-list.

[D'face · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly Foxed #89 Spring 2026 opens with the Beaton diaries, it then goes into one of their own publications a childhood memoir. Milosz a Nobel Prize winning author. One review prompted me to start reading Jeremy Clarke’s Low Life columns from the Spectator, the final years, whose columns follow his life from the diagnosis of prostate cancer until his death. A book on boat dwellers. Garden and cookery writing. Letters between lovers from the late 1700s. A travel account of the River Wye from the 1940s. A French children’s book. Bruce Chatwin’s On Black Hill. A favourite book from Iris Murdoch. The extraordinary life, ego and writing of James Salter. The small group biographies of Linda Kelly. The memoir of Jack Black who was a thief and burglar, often imprisoned and eventually became a librarian. Finally the TV script for a science fiction series.

I was pleased to pick up the recommendation to read Jeremy Clarke and am doing so now.

[Marie-Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

More enthusiastic recommendations to add to my never ending book list.