My first Slightly Foxed Editions (A Late Beginner by Priscilla Napier, Another Self by James Lees-Milne and Look Back with Love by Dodie Smith) arrived earlier this week and oh, are they ever pretty! They are small but perfectly formed. Yes, I’m very excited to read them – especially Dodie Smith’s Look Back with Love, which seems to have delighted everyone who has read it so far – but in the meantime (as I work my way through a truly ridiculous pile of library books) I am perfectly content just to admire their beautiful exteriors.
The Captive Reader 
Oh my, they are so beautiful! Like you, I am new to Slightly Foxed, but I absolutely love their work ethic and I am dying to get my hands on some of those books! Enjoy!
They are lovely, aren’t they? I am so impressed by Slightly Foxed and can’t praise them enough.
I just want to reach out and stroke those gorgeous books, Claire. That’s never going to happen with an ereader.
It certainly is not!
A very nice piece of book lust, dear. They look esp. nice against that embroidered pillow.
Thank you, Susan. I love how they look against the pillow too, so couldn’t resist photographing them against it.
Claire, those books are so lovely. A stack of books like that makes me smile. I am not familiar with “Slightly Foxed” and will now look into it. They make a lovely picture against that backdrop. I would love to read the Dodie Smith.
Happy reading!
Sunday, I think you’ll love Slightly Foxed. They put out a wonderful quarterly full of the most delightful, well-written pieces on bookish subjects, as well as publishing these lovely books.
Beautiful! I would love to collect all of them, but I don’t think I dare start spending…
And I beyond certain that you will love the Smith, and look forward to hearing about the others.
I know! As soon as I unwrapped these, I immediately wanted to start buying up all the rest. Honestly, if a number of them hadn’t already sold out, I probably would have started doing so. I definitely have my eye on a few of the other titles but won’t attempt to track down all of them.
What a pretty picture! I always think the enjoyment of books is enhanced by their physical beauty.
I completely agree. Thank goodness there are like-minded publishers out there (like Slightly Foxed and Persephone) who feel the same way!
They do look lovely, and I’m particularly pleased you have the copy of the Napier, which I see is sold out now. I look forward to reading your thoughts about them one day.
I was really excited to get the Napier, I have to admit, since I knew they were down to their last few copies. Penelope Lively’s piece on it in the Slightly Foxed quarterly made it sound so wonderful!
Lovely books – I am green with envy. Claire you will certainly enjoy the Dodie Smith. It is a charming book.
Glad to hear that you were another one who loved Look Back with Love, Margaret! I don’t think I’ve heard one negative word about it.
Books with plain bindings like this were once the norm, dust jackets were things to be discarded but now they’re – well, some of them are – works of art in themselves.
Unfortunately – and I’m a sucker for a pretty dust jacket as much as the next person – the trouble with illustrated dust jackets is that they, sometimes incorrectly, offer a preconception of the book rather than allowing our own imaginations to be given free rein.
These are indeed attractive bindings, but as I say, they are what books used to look like, simple and elegant and about as far removed from an e-reader as it is possible to get.
A lot of the beauty of these editions comes not just from their binding (attractive, certainly) but from the quality of the materials with which they are made. There is nothing like touching pages made with good-quality paper.
Hope you enjoyed the books