{"title":"Slightly Foxed Books","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSlightly Foxed brings back forgotten voices through its Slightly Foxed Editions, a series of beautifully produced little hand-numbered pocket hardback reissues of classic memoirs, all of them absorbing and irresistibly collectable. They are hand produced in Yorkshire by Smith Settle bookbinders in limited runs of 2,000\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"my-salinger-year-no-66-by-joanna-rakoff","title":"My Salinger Year (No. 66) by Joanna Rakoff","description":"\u003ch3\u003eIn the freezing winter of 1996 Joanna Rakoff, aged 24, moved to New York and landed her first job as assistant at one of the city’s oldest and most distinguished literary agencies.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo matter that she didn’t even know what a literary agent was and had lied about her typing speed. She’d also led her parents to believe she was living with a female college friend when she was in fact sharing an unheated Brooklyn apartment with a penniless and unpublished Marxist novelist whose sole and very part-time job was watering the plants at Goldman Sachs. And so the scene is set for this delicious account of the year our green-as-grass heroine spends at The Agency, and of her unusual relationship with its best-known author . . .\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN: 9781910898895\u003cbr\u003ePages: 288\u003cbr\u003eDimensions: 170 x 110mm\u003cbr\u003ePublication date: 1 March 2024\u003cbr\u003eProducer: Smith Settle\u003cbr\u003eGenre: Memoir\u003cbr\u003eTrimmings: Coloured endpapers; silk ribbon, head- \u0026amp; tailband; gold blocking to spine; blind blocking to front\u003cbr\u003eNB: Hand-numbered limited edition of 2,000\u003cbr\u003ePreface: Frances Donnelly\u003cbr\u003eNumber in SFE series: 66\u003cbr\u003ePages: 224\u003cbr\u003eGenre: Memoir\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Cloth hardback\u003cbr\u003eTrimmings: Coloured endpapers; silk ribbon, head- \u0026amp; tailband; gold blocking to spine; blind blocking to front\u003cbr\u003ePreface: Frances Donnelly\u003cbr\u003eMade in Britain\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wave of Nostalgia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":65719617782109,"sku":null,"price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/8838\/2301\/files\/My-Salinger-Year.jpg?v=1787905968"},{"product_id":"the-prince-the-showgirl-and-me-no-61-by-colin-clark","title":"The Prince, the Showgirl and Me (No. 61) by Colin Clark","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"entry-quote\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s Tuesday, 14 August 1956, and through a combination of chutzpah and some useful contacts (he is after all the son of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/books\/page-turner\/the-seductive-enthusiasm-of-kenneth-clarks-civilisation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eLord Clark of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCivilisation\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e), Colin Clark, fresh from Oxford, has got himself a job. He’s now a ‘gofer’ or general dogsbody on the Pinewood Studios set of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Prince and the Showgirl\u003c\/em\u003e, a light comedy starring Sir Laurence Olivier (abbreviated in the diary Colin is beadily keeping to SLO) and Marilyn Monroe (MM).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s been clear almost from the moment Marilyn Monroe and her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller, stepped off the plane at Heathrow, shortly to be followed by Marilyn’s acting coach Paula Strasberg, that this ill-advised project is going to be a car crash. ‘SLO probably thought the whole thing would be a bit of a lark,’ writes Colin. ‘He could have fun, make money and add considerably to\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ehis\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eglamour.’ Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePoor SLO is increasingly grim-faced as MM fails to turn up on time, can’t remember her lines and when she does can barely speak them without consulting Paula – or worse, making long-distance calls to Paula’s husband, the guru of ‘Method’ acting Lee Strasberg in New York – a terrible affront to SLO’s dignity as he is supposed to be in charge. As for SLO, he’s out of his depth with this very un-British crowd, and Marilyn herself is a troubling enigma – impossible to deal with, unable to act, yet possessed of some indefinable magic that makes her irresistible on screen when the ‘rushes’ come through, often upstaging Sir Laurence Olivier himself. For him she’s the ultimate dumb blonde, though there are hints from Colin, who like most men on the set has fallen in love with her, that she’s brighter than she seems.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn \u003c\/span\u003eThe Prince, the Showgirl and Me\u003cspan\u003e, Colin Clark is in a brilliant, fly-on-the-wall position to record all this since he knows SLO personally as a family friend yet is so junior that his presence is barely noticed when crises occur and important decisions are being made. There are some delicious cameo appearances too in this tragicomedy: Arthur Miller, smug and self-important, ‘grinning like an amiable crocodile’ at the side of his trophy wife;  MM’s publicity man, the appalling Arthur P. Jacobs (‘close-cropped black hair, pugnacious, bad-tempered, puffy face’) who keeps Colin waiting outside the Savoy hotel for an hour and a half and finally emerges without a word of apology; and, pouring oil on troubled waters, saintly Dame Sybil Thorndike, already in her seventies, who turns up promptly and professionally at 6.15 every morning while Marilyn is still in bed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Prince and the Showgirl\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e did eventually get made and sank without trace. Some years later Colin Clark met Billy Wilder, director of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSome Like It Hot\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, at a party and mentioned that he too had worked with Marilyn Monroe. ‘Then you know the meaning of pure pain,’ Wilder growled. Colin’s hilarious account of it, however, is pure pleasure.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Fruity, lascivious, apple-cart upturning, this has all the elements we have come to expect from the Clark school of diarifying . . . quite wondrously and toe-curlingly frank’\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003csmall\u003eThe Times\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"entry-quote\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Sheer delight . . . sharp, funny and irreverent’\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003csmall\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"entry-quote\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Extraordinarily compulsive reading . . . a fascinating document’\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003csmall\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN: 9781910898758\u003cbr\u003eDimensions: 170 x 110mm\u003cbr\u003ePublication date: 1 December 2022\u003cbr\u003eGenre: Memoir\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Cloth hardback\u003cbr\u003eTrimmings: Coloured endpapers; silk ribbon, head- \u0026amp; tailband; gold blocking to spine; blind blocking to front\u003cbr\u003eNB: Hand-numbered limited edition of 2,000\u003cbr\u003ePreface: Derek Parker\u003cbr\u003eNumber in SFE series: 61\u003cbr\u003eMade in Britain\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Wave of Nostalgia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":65719637868893,"sku":null,"price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/8838\/2301\/files\/SFE-61-Colin-Clark-The-Prince-the-Showgirl-and-Me-Slightly-Foxed-Edition-Winter-2022.jpg?v=1787906161"},{"product_id":"les-girls-no-73-by-constance-tomkinson","title":"Les Girls (No. 73) by Constance Tomkinson","description":"\u003ch3\u003e‘Wanted. Dancers for Scandinavian tour. Must be experienced tap and ballet,’ read the advertisement in\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Stage\u003c\/em\u003e. Constance Tomkinson was experienced at neither but, as she tells us in her gloriously funny memoir\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLes Girls\u003c\/em\u003e, she was broke and desperate. To her astonishment she passed the audition and soon found herself in the chorus line of a company called the Millerettes and on her way to Sweden.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was 1937, and work of any kind was hard to come by. Constance, the daughter of a Canadian Nonconformist minister, had already tried her luck as an actor after drama school in New York and then had moved on to London, where her only job so far had been in the pantomime chorus of a touring production of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDick Whittington\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere was nothing very high class about the Millerettes ­but a certain degree of competence was required. Constance didn’t have it but she was up for anything, and one of the delights of the book is the picture of its author as she gamely struggles to obey instructions, at one performance early on in the tour losing her balance and landing in the middle of the orchestra  (‘The drummer, muttering Swedish curses, untangled me from the cymbals, pulled me off the drum, propped me up with his right hand and went on drumming with his left’). Alas, after Sweden no further bookings were forthcoming, so the girls decided to try their luck in Paris where, after a stint at the Folies-Bergère (then starring the fabulous Josephine Baker), Constance eventually joined a group called the Basil Beauties, touring the European capitals.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe delectable memoir that came out of all this is not only a wryly observed picture of the seedy world of the chorus line and the touching esprit de corps that kept the girls going – even when ‘the stick make-up was worn down to little stumps and there was not an unbroken eyebrow liner’ – but an unusual glimpse of Europe on the eve of the Second World War, with Hitler and Mussolini in power, not long before the curtain finally came down.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eISBN: 9781916803060\u003cbr\u003ePages: 271\u003cbr\u003eDimensions: 170 x 110mm\u003cbr\u003eGenre: Memoir\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Cloth hardback\u003cbr\u003eTrimmings: Coloured endpapers; silk ribbon, head- \u0026amp; tailband; gold blocking to spine; blind blocking to front\u003cbr\u003eNB: Hand-numbered limited edition of 2,000\u003cbr\u003ePreface: Brad Bigelow\u003cbr\u003eNumber in SFE series: 73\u003cbr\u003eMade in Britain\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wave of Nostalgia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":65719642358109,"sku":null,"price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/8838\/2301\/files\/Slightly-Foxed-Edition-Les-Girls.jpg?v=1787906476"},{"product_id":"slightly-foxed-issue-90","title":"Slightly Foxed Issue 90","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe independent-minded quarterly that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. \u003cem\u003eSlightly Foxed\u003c\/em\u003e introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIn this issue:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJulia Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eshares a boat with Arthur Ransome\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e•\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTim Blanchard\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003erevisits the case of the Yorkshire Ripper •\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSarah Wedderburn\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eadmires\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eValley of the Dolls •\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJames Runcie\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003ediscovers the short stories of Stacy Aumonier •\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDaisy Hay\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003egoes shopping with\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eEvelina\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e•\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAndrew Ryan\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emeets the players of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Biggest Game in Town\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e•\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePosy Fallowfield\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis moved and appalled by\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e•\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris Saunders\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efollows the story of the Great White Whale •\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnthony Longden\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eremembers a wartime summer in Suffolk . . .\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"product-meta-list\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eISBN: 9781916803107\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePages: 96\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDimensions: 210 x 148mm\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIllustrations: B\/W\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eProducer: Smith Settle\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCover Artist: Dale Bissland, ‘Shoregate Entrance, Crail’\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eISSN: 1742-5794\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIssue Subtitle: ‘Sailing On’\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublished: 1 June 2026\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mib\"\u003eMade in Britain\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Wave of Nostalgia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":65719649403229,"sku":null,"price":14.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/8838\/2301\/files\/90.webp?v=1787906676"},{"product_id":"slightly-foxed-issue-91","title":"Slightly Foxed Issue 91","description":"\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe independent-minded quarterly that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. \u003cem\u003eSlightly Foxed\u003c\/em\u003e introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this issue\u003cem\u003e: \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGuy Stagg\u003c\/strong\u003e meets some imperfect priests \u003cem\u003e• \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKathryn Hughes\u003c\/strong\u003e does a ward round with Monica Dickens \u003cem\u003e•\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eC. J. Schüler\u003c\/strong\u003e visits Nazi Germany \u003cem\u003eAfter Midnight •\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eRaffaella Barker\u003c\/strong\u003e is spellbound by \u003cem\u003eThe Transylvanian Trilogy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e • \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Profumo\u003c\/strong\u003e goes fishing with Negley Farson \u003cem\u003e•\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eFrances Donnelly\u003c\/strong\u003e meets ‘the man who saved England’ \u003cem\u003e•\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eRichard Smyth\u003c\/strong\u003e listens to the birds of Victorian London \u003cem\u003e•\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eVesna Goldsworthy\u003c\/strong\u003e rereads Turgenev \u003cem\u003e•\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eMichael Barber\u003c\/strong\u003e pumps iron in the American South \u003cem\u003e•\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eMaggie Fergusson\u003c\/strong\u003e pays tribute to SOE’s lost agents, and much more besides . . .\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eISBN: 9781916803121\u003cbr\u003ePages: 96\u003cbr\u003eDimensions: 210 x 148mm\u003cbr\u003eIllustrations: B\/W\u003cbr\u003ePublication date: 1 September 2026\u003cbr\u003eProducer: Smith Settle\u003cbr\u003eCover Artist: Rebecca Campbell, ‘I See Yew’\u003cbr\u003eISSN: 1742-5794\u003cbr\u003eIssue Subtitle: ‘The Man Who Saved England’\u003cbr\u003eMade in Britain\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wave of Nostalgia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":65719662543197,"sku":null,"price":14.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/8838\/2301\/files\/91.webp?v=1787906914"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/8838\/2301\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-08-28_091956.png?v=1787905649","url":"https:\/\/waveofnostalgia.co.uk\/collections\/slightly-foxed-books.oembed","provider":"Wave of Nostalgia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}