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You can print and post or scan and email us your completed crossword. Entries should reach us no later than 14 January and the first correct one to be drawn out of a hat will receive a free annual subscription to Slightly Foxed.

And indeed it is. Best known for her first novel I Capture the Castle, for the evergreen The Hundred and One Dalmatians, and for Dear Octopus, her 1938 play set at a family reunion, Dodie did not publish this account of her early life until 1974 when she was 78.

Brought up among her mother’s family since her father had died when she was a baby, Dodie spent her childhood surrounded by doting adults. It was the jolliest environment imaginable – the Furbers adored seaside trips, motor-car outings, fairgrounds, circuses, jokes, charades and musical soirées. Above all they loved the theatre, and it was through her bachelor uncles’ involvement in amateur dramatics that she conceived her passion for the stage.

Her memoir gives a wonderful picture of this large extended family and of life at that time in the ‘basking Sunday afternoon charm’ of Manchester’s Victorian suburbs. And of the funny, complicated, creative little girl who would later say of herself ‘I think I’m an oddity really, but I do my very, very best to write well’ – which in Look Back with Love she certainly did.

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We believe that good writing comes from good reading: in celebration of young readers we’re delighted to announce the Slightly Foxed Young Writers’ Competition.

Writing for Slightly Foxed is rather different from writing for other book pages and periodicals. First of all, the books we feature aren’t the latest publications or big sellers. We’re interested in books – fiction or non-fiction, sometimes out of print – that have somehow slipped from notice but which have meant something to the people who write about them. They don’t have to be ‘classics’, just good reads, we’re not snobbish – we’ve had a piece on Georgette Heyer as well as one on Homer.

Slightly Foxed covers all genres of fiction and non-fiction including poetry and short story collections – we even once published a piece on the literary operating instructions for The British Seagull Outboard Motor.  We also regularly have pieces on libraries, bookshops, printing, binding and all sorts of other bookish things.

Our pieces are personal – not standing-back-and-making-a-judgement kind of pieces, but ones that communicate the contributor’s own interest in and enthusiasm for the book. We hate lit. crit. speak and love clear, unpretentious writing. Above all we want to hear your voice and share your experience of finding and reading the book you choose, whether it’s humorous or sad.

We have a wide cross-section of contributors – some you will probably already have heard of and others you won’t – people who write well but whose occupations have nothing to do with the literary world. We hope you’ll soon be joining them.

First Prize

£250 prize money
Publication of article in Slightly Foxed, Summer 2012
One-year subscription to Slightly Foxed
Slightly Foxed Book Bag
The Chambers Dictionary, 12th Edition

Runner-Up Prize x 2

One-year subscription to Slightly Foxed
Publication of article on Slightly Foxed website
Slightly Foxed Book Bag
The Chambers Dictionary, 12th Edition

Submission Requirements and How to Enter

1,000-2,000 word article on a favourite book published within the last 26 years, and not yet featured in Slightly Foxed
NB An up-to-date index can be found here: An Index to Slightly Foxed and a selection of previously published articles here: A Taste of Slightly Foxed
Articles can cover all genres of fiction and non-fiction including poetry and short story collections
Entrants must be 26 or under
Entries to be submitted in Word Doc format to youngwriters@foxedquarterly.com
Competition opens 8th October 2011
Deadline 15th January 2012. Winner to be announced 1st March 2012

UK price: £26 / EU: £34/ USA & Rest of World: £38

Full-rate subscriptions are £36 to the UK, £44 to Europe and £48 to the USA & Rest of World so it’s quite a saving, but if it’s still too much of a squeeze, it’s a perfect present request for an aunt or uncle, godparent or grandparent.

If you are one of the aforementioned, or any other present buyer, you’re very welcome to buy a gift subscription for a Young Reader. Just add the subscription to your basket, and complete the checkout form for a gift order.

GO TO SUBSCRIPTIONS PAGE . . .

To celebrate young readers, we’re running a young writers’ competition. More details . . .

If you are aged 26 or under you can take advantage of our Young Readers’ rates.

Full-rate subscriptions are £36 to the UK, £44 to Europe and £48 to the USA & Rest of World so it’s quite a saving, but if it’s still too much of a squeeze, it’s a perfect present request for an aunt or uncle, godparent or granny.

If you are one of the aforementioned, or any other present buyer, you’re very welcome to buy a gift subscription for a Young Reader. Just add the subscription to your basket, and complete the checkout form for a gift order.

To celebrate young readers, we’re running a young writers’ competition. More details . . .