These lazy, hazy, crazy days …

The Book Foxes have been excessively busy over the last few months, both in bringing you the cutting-edge book reviews you love (and sometimes hate), and in the exciting personal and business lives we all secretly, or not so secretly, lead. So we thought it was high time to give ourselves, and possibly you, a [...]

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Minds in the Water, a film by Justin Krumb

Special Report from the U.K. premiere A slight departure for Vulpes Libris, but since we have broadened our remit to include films and television shows, I have a special report about a fascinating film that was brought to my attention last week. Minds in the Water is an independent documentary film made by a group [...]

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The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi by Andrew McConnell Stott

I have a confession. I hate clowns.  I’ve always hated clowns ever since I was a child. I find them both unsettling and unfunny and, as far as I remember, I’ve never felt any differently.  The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi was therefore not  exactly the sort of book I would normally make a bee-line [...]

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The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman: a very human, complex and worthwhile tale

The three Story sisters, Elv, Meg and Claire, live with their mother on Long Island. Beautiful and mysterious, they are the object of envy and intrigue. But their happy existence is brought abruptly to an end when Elv and Claire share an encounter with a man that will change them forever. As the girls grow [...]

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In Conversation with Robin Bayley

Sam Ruddock: First up, can you tell us a bit about The Mango Orchard? Robin Bayley: It’s a book about my journey in the footsteps of my great grandfather around Latin America. It sounds like a travel book, and it is, but more importantly, it’s a book about storytelling and the importance of storytelling within [...]

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The Mango Orchard by Robin Bayley

I remember the first time I had the feeling that somewhere, something was waiting for me, in a land I didn’t yet know. So begins The Mango Orchard, Robin Bayley’s enthralling travel writing come family history adventure. At its heart lies an appreciation of the power of stories and storytelling. As a boy, Robin had [...]

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This week on Vulpes Libris …

Usually when it’s my turn to do the ‘Coming Up’ post I gaze forlornly at what we have lined up for the week and try to identify a common theme apart from, well, books.  Nine times out of ten I fail dismally and have to fall back on the tried and tested formula of ‘all [...]

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The First Husband by Laura Dave

Every now and then in my reading life there are a few happy months where I find myself on a run of exceptional books. As soon as one book ends, leaving me admiring its style and pizazz, I begin another that takes my breath away. There have been four books this summer that have struck [...]

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The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Hanna Heath is an Australian book conservator who is called to war torn Bosnia in 1996 to work on the Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish prayer book that has survived for hundreds of years. Through her work on the book she meets Ozren Karamen who saved the book during heavy shelling. She sets to work on [...]

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Norman Nicholson – The Fire of the Lord and The Green Shore

Review by David Boyd Norman Nicholson (‘NN’) is best known for his poetry, but his poetry is in a way just the distillation of a lifetime of all kinds of literary output, from book reviewing and broadcasting through topographical guidebooks, stage plays and carol and song lyrics to two, published, full-length novels. This piece focuses [...]

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