Slightly Foxed

I have spent the day at home, mostly in bed, since I cannot very well go to work and sneeze on "vulnerable people". Having made the call at 7.30 am, I then faced the matter of how to occupy myself all day. Seeing as my brothers or sisters were not around to speed the recovery (see yesterday's blip if you have the inclination), I listened to the radio (a lot) including yesterday's Drama on Radio 3: King David, which I didn't think I'd like at first, but ended up enjoying a great deal. It's about a geezer called David King who, through a combination of dramatic circumstances, visits a church and ends up believing he is the reincarnation of King David of bliblical fame. I did know another David once, who was convinced he was the Lion of Judah, but that's another story...

Apart from amusing myself with the jigsaw, radio, and audiobook, I also took the opportunity to blip some gorgeous covers of back issues of Slightly Foxed, which is a posh quarterly periodical on books that I subscribe to. I adore the covers, the cream paper it is printed on, and the very rum books they review and recommend. Some of those I've enjoyed include Look Back with Love, by Dodie Smith; Hand-grenade Practice in Peking by Frances Wood; People Who say Goodbye by P.Y. Betts; Corduroy by Adrian Bell. All of these are classed as autobiography. SF also publish limited edition hardbacks of some selected out of print books, which are an absolute joy to have and to hold. Quite often I think, "Oh, I don't know, I don't seem to read this fast enough" but I cannot bring myself to unsubscribe, because the periodical is so well produced, and it's the only literary review I've found that seems to suit me. And of course, there's the cover art, and the second-hand bookshop itself, which is located in London's Kensington, and is the building pictured on the cover above, somewhat heavily overcropped! I went there once mid-morning, and found the staff and customers all engaged in doing a geographical puzzle together.

Nothing unites a crowd faster than a collective challenge or puzzle. Apart from, say, watching a football match or singing Auld Lang Syne at New Year!

Normal service will resume tomorrow, Insh'allah/God Willing.

Slightly Foxed website