{{short description|British literary magazine}} {{About|the magazine|the condition in books|Foxing}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | title = Slightly Foxed | image_file = Slightly Foxed cover.png | image_size = | image_caption = Issue 58 | publisher = Slightly Foxed | paid_circulation = 10,000<ref>{{cite web |title=A Celebration of Slightly Foxed Readers |date=29 September 2021 |url=https://foxedquarterly.com/celebration-slightly-foxed-readers-ten-thousand-print-run/}} Official website. Retrieved 13 June 2023</ref> | unpaid_circulation = | total_circulation = | frequency = Quarterly | language = English | category = Literature, books | editor = Hazel Wood and Gail Pirkis | editor_title = | founded = 2004 | firstdate = | country = United Kingdom | based = Hoxton, London | website = [http://www.foxedquarterly.com www.foxedquarterly.com] | issn = }} '''''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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Outfoxing the digital revolution |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9134248/Outfoxing-the-digital-revolution.html |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk|first=Gaby|last=Wood|author-link=Gaby Wood|date=12 March 2012 }}</ref> Notable authors to have written for the magazine include Penelope Lively, Richard Mabey, Diana Athill, Ronald Blythe and Robert Macfarlane.<ref>[https://foxedquarterly.com/a-history/ Slightly Foxed: A Potted History] Official website. Retrieved 1 October 2016.</ref>
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.<ref>[https://foxedquarterly.com/our-books/ Our Books] Official website. Retrieved 1 October 2016.</ref> Original books published by the imprint include Philip Evans' ''Country Doctor's Common Place Book'' <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Roger |date=2018-11-29 |title=Books: ''A Country Doctor's Commonplace Book: Wonders and Absurdities'' |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3399/bjgp18x700085 |journal=British Journal of General Practice |volume=68 |issue=677 |pages=585.2–585 |doi=10.3399/bjgp18x700085 |pmid=30498155 |issn=0960-1643|pmc=6255243 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Berkmann |first=Marcus |date=2018-11-22 |title=Top of the Christmas lists |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/top-of-the-christmas-lists/ |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=The Spectator |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Thorpe |first=Vanessa |date=2018-12-02 |title=GP's diary of the absurd set to be surprise festive hit |language=en-GB |newspaper=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/dec/02/country-doctors-commonplace-book-philip-rhys-evans-festive-novelty-bestseller |access-date=2023-06-13 |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> and Charles Phillipson’s ''Letters to Michael'' (selected by the ''Telegraph'' as one of the best books of 2021)''.''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Writers |first=Telegraph |date=2021-12-22 |title=The 75 best books of 2021 to read this winter |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/best-books-2021-read-winter/ |access-date=2023-06-24 |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barnes |first=Clive |date=2016-12-01 |title=A View of War and Soldiering in the Carey Novels of Ronald Welch |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-015-9269-8 |journal=Children's Literature in Education |language=en |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=300–324 |doi=10.1007/s10583-015-9269-8 |s2cid=254377824 |issn=1573-1693|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Since 2014, the magazine has sponsored the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize for the best first biography or literary memoir published each year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize {{!}} The Biographers' Club |url=https://thebiographersclub.com/the-slightly-foxed-best-first-biography-prize/ |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=The Biographer's Club |date=9 January 2020 |language=en-US}}</ref> 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.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rundell and Yousefzada scoop Slightly Foxed prize |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/rundell-and-yousefzada-scoop-slightly-foxed-prize|first=Alice |last=Kemp-Habib |date=15 March 2023 |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}}</ref> Winners from previous years include Edmund Gordon for ''The Invention of Angela Carter'' <ref>{{Cite web |last=Leith |first=Sam |date=2018-03-07 |title=Angela Carter biography wins award |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/angela-carter-biography-wins-award/ |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=The Spectator |language=en-US}}</ref> and Alan Cumming for ''Not My Father’s Son.'' <ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-11-05 |title=Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize |url=http://www.alancumming.com/2010-a/2015/11/5/slightly-foxed-best-first-biography |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=ALAN CUMMING |language=en-US}}</ref>
In addition to the quarterly magazine, ''Slightly Foxed'' produces a podcast about books, book culture and writers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dunn |first=Daisy |date=2020-11-05 |title=The shocking story of Charles and Mary Lamb: Slightly Foxed podcast reviewed |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-shocking-story-of-charles-and-mary-lamb-slightly-foxed-podcast-reviewed/ |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=The Spectator |language=en-US}}</ref>
Between 2009 and 2016, ''Slightly Foxed'' ran a bookshop of the same name on London's Gloucester Road.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/slightly-foxed-close-end-month-319939 |title=Slightly Foxed Bookshop to close at the end of the month|magazine=The Bookseller|first=Natasha |last=Onwuemezi|date=11 January 2016|access-date= 8 April 2026}}</ref>
The magazine's offices are based at Hoxton Square, London, N1.
For the 20th anniversary and the 80th issue of the publication, the cover of ''Slightly Foxed'' featured an original linocut by James Nunn of two foxes in the shape of the number 20. Nunn's art was also featured on the back cover of issues 77, 78, and 79. The issue was published on 1 December 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foxed |first=Slightly |date=December 1, 2023 |title=Cover Artist: Slightly Foxed Issue 80, James Nunn, 'Now We Are 20' |url=https://foxedquarterly.com/cover-artist-slightly-foxed-issue-80-james-nunn/ |access-date=2025-10-16 |website=Slightly Foxed |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2023, Pirkis received an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours, for services to Literature, in recognition of her work as editor of the magazine.
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Book review magazines Category:Literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Category:Magazines established in 2004 Category:Magazines published in London Category:Quarterly magazines published in the United Kingdom