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Foxash
Worn out by poverty, Lettie Radley and her miner husband Tommy grasp at the offer of their very own smallholding - part of a Government scheme to put the unemployed back to work on the land. When she comes down to Essex to join him, it's not Tommy who greets her, but their new neighbours. Overbearing and unkempt, Jean and Adam Dell are everything that the smart, spirited, aspirational Lettie can't abide.
As Lettie settles in, she finds an unexpected joy in the rhythms of life on the smallholding. She's hopeful that her past, and the terrible secret Tommy has come to Foxash to escape, are far behind them. But the Dells have their own secrets. And as the seasons change, and a man comes knocking at the gate, the scene is set for a terrible reckoning.
Combining a gothic sensibility with a visceral, unsettling sense of place, Foxash is a deeply original novel of quiet and powerful menace, of the real hardships of rural life, and the myths and folklore that seep into ordinary lives - with surprising consequences.
As Lettie settles in, she finds an unexpected joy in the rhythms of life on the smallholding. She's hopeful that her past, and the terrible secret Tommy has come to Foxash to escape, are far behind them. But the Dells have their own secrets. And as the seasons change, and a man comes knocking at the gate, the scene is set for a terrible reckoning.
Combining a gothic sensibility with a visceral, unsettling sense of place, Foxash is a deeply original novel of quiet and powerful menace, of the real hardships of rural life, and the myths and folklore that seep into ordinary lives - with surprising consequences.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published April 27, 2023
27 people are currently reading
3528 people want to read
About the author
Kate Worsley
5 books27 followersKate Worsley’s latest novel FOXASH, out now in paperback and audiobook, is a Times pick of the month and winner of the East Anglian Book Award for Fiction. Her first novel, SHE RISES, won the HWA Debut Crown for Historical Fiction and was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Prize in the US. She was born in Lancashire, and now lives on the Essex coast in the UK.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
February 24, 2024
I bought the eBook and now I will buy a finished copy.
I need other readers to understand how deeply I invested in this story. There are only four characters. Tommy and Lettie move in next door to Jean and Adam.
It's hard times. We're working the land. Every day we plant crops, tend to livestock, and scrub the dirt from under our fingernails. I woke up each morning with Lettie and listened to her concerns and fears. She has all these doubts and needs--a complicated relationship with her husband and neighbors. There is so much underlying dread! It's high stakes out there in rural Essex.
And then something happens that changes the entire direction of the story as it builds to a climax and ends. This is the slowest burn of all slow burns but when I tell you that I was here for it, I mean that nothing could pry me away from finding out what would happen.
I would let Kate Worsley read me her weekly shopping list.
I need other readers to understand how deeply I invested in this story. There are only four characters. Tommy and Lettie move in next door to Jean and Adam.
It's hard times. We're working the land. Every day we plant crops, tend to livestock, and scrub the dirt from under our fingernails. I woke up each morning with Lettie and listened to her concerns and fears. She has all these doubts and needs--a complicated relationship with her husband and neighbors. There is so much underlying dread! It's high stakes out there in rural Essex.
And then something happens that changes the entire direction of the story as it builds to a climax and ends. This is the slowest burn of all slow burns but when I tell you that I was here for it, I mean that nothing could pry me away from finding out what would happen.
I would let Kate Worsley read me her weekly shopping list.
February 10, 2023
Something about the book blurb on NetGalley made me think I would enjoy reading this book, and my thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC. As it turns out, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting and I don’t know whether that’s because I misread the description or because it was, as it felt to me, a different book to what was described.
Back in 1934, the UK government set up a scheme called the Land Settlement Association (LSA) which aimed to provide work on the land for unemployed industrial workers from depressed areas. One such settlement, the titular Foxash, is the setting for this book as first Tommy and then, a few months later, his wife Lettie leave their mining community in the north of the country and head to Foxash for a fresh start. But the novel soon makes it very clear to the reader that Tommy and Lettie aren’t just moving towards a new future, they are escaping from a dark past. We don’t know what that dark past contains, but this is gradually revealed as the story progresses. At Foxash, they meet Jean and Adam who live in the house next to their new home and, being experienced workers in the settlement, take Tommy and Lettie under their wing. But Jean and Adam harbour their own dark secrets. And gradually all is revealed as the two couples’ lives entangle.
And it’s actually a sad and fairly sordid tale.
There was something about the book blurb that made me think there would be more nature writing in the novel. There’s talk of a “visceral, unsettling sense of place” and I didn’t get that at all from the book. There’s talk of “gothic sensibility” and I might have got a bit of that from the last 100 pages or so, but not really from the first 250 pages. The focus of the book is the four main protagonists, especially Lettie through whose eyes we see everything. The action rarely leaves the two houses where they live which are remote from other dwellings and, in a sense, could almost be anywhere meaning “a sense of place” is hard to convey when you don’t ever go more than about 100 yards in any one direction.
I found it to be actually a very claustrophobic, isolated and dark story, which I guess is where the gothic bit comes in. Several of the twists and turns are a bit predictable, although perhaps the final one is unexpected.
I’m afraid it just didn’t really click for me.
Back in 1934, the UK government set up a scheme called the Land Settlement Association (LSA) which aimed to provide work on the land for unemployed industrial workers from depressed areas. One such settlement, the titular Foxash, is the setting for this book as first Tommy and then, a few months later, his wife Lettie leave their mining community in the north of the country and head to Foxash for a fresh start. But the novel soon makes it very clear to the reader that Tommy and Lettie aren’t just moving towards a new future, they are escaping from a dark past. We don’t know what that dark past contains, but this is gradually revealed as the story progresses. At Foxash, they meet Jean and Adam who live in the house next to their new home and, being experienced workers in the settlement, take Tommy and Lettie under their wing. But Jean and Adam harbour their own dark secrets. And gradually all is revealed as the two couples’ lives entangle.
And it’s actually a sad and fairly sordid tale.
There was something about the book blurb that made me think there would be more nature writing in the novel. There’s talk of a “visceral, unsettling sense of place” and I didn’t get that at all from the book. There’s talk of “gothic sensibility” and I might have got a bit of that from the last 100 pages or so, but not really from the first 250 pages. The focus of the book is the four main protagonists, especially Lettie through whose eyes we see everything. The action rarely leaves the two houses where they live which are remote from other dwellings and, in a sense, could almost be anywhere meaning “a sense of place” is hard to convey when you don’t ever go more than about 100 yards in any one direction.
I found it to be actually a very claustrophobic, isolated and dark story, which I guess is where the gothic bit comes in. Several of the twists and turns are a bit predictable, although perhaps the final one is unexpected.
I’m afraid it just didn’t really click for me.
May 7, 2023
'Green fingers, black womb.'
'Foxash' is the story of a body. Kate Worsley enroots the story in one woman's - Lettie's - body, and cultivates a form of high sensuousness full of the felt knowledge of the physical. Lettie tills on towards the novel's climax, experiencing every grain of the narrative as a bodily perception: '[my] body feels like syrup on a spoon.'
It's a story of growing: of growing crops on a smallholding (in the first year of production under the 1930s Land Settlement Association scheme) and the fertility of rural land; it's the story of growing sociality, co-operaton, neighbourliness and belonging; it's the story of a new life for a coalminer and his pitwife, growing seeds and plugs into cash crops of cucumbers and cane fruits. But more than that, 'Foxash' is the story of the female body growing; women's fertility; women's connectedness of spirit within the rural idyll. It's also the story of the growth of rot as collaboration breaks down; as decay grows within relationships; it's the chilling story of the insidious growth of spite, jealousy, and perfidy, and it all plays out in the media of what Lettie smells, tastes, sees, feels, hears.
In audiobooks, some Northern English accents in the wrong narrator's hands, can often come across as kiddish, somehow simple, and I've shied away from audiobooks narrated in accents from Yorkshire/Northumberland (that's just a personal preference and no reflection upon the regions themselves!). But in 'Foxash', Alex Dunmore speaks as Lettie in the first-person present tense, in vibrant, authentic, and naturalistic Northern speech; which softly folds around Lettie's constant descriptive awareness of her breasts, her genitals, her hair, face and skin. Especially and compusively, Lettie relates how her body is sited in her nightdress.
I found that I repeatedly heard in Lettie's voice echoes of Frances in 'The Paying Guests' (Sarah Waters, coincidentally, provides the endorsement on the cover of 'Foxash'). And just like 'The Paying Guests', the narrative of 'Foxash' comprises a woman's developing inter-relatedness with two persons in a couple with whom she finds herself in close confinement. This is compounded by Lettie's other personal and physical relationship: that with her husband Tommy. In Worsley's novel, both couples exhibit a real sense of attachment to their situation; every small instance of behaviour, a gesture within the shared square of space between the two couples. In the end, we see how every one of those persons' bodies is possessed and consumed by every other person, in some way. This kind of figurative mutual cannibalism also harked back to Sarah Waters' novel. The abortion scene in particular parallelled that in 'The Paying Guests'.
Likewise to Sarah Waters, I would also compare 'Foxash' to Kiran Millwood Hargrave's writing for adults. There is that physiologic claustrophobia and shrinking-down of the female protagonist's world, as is experienced by Hargrave's Maren and Lisbet in 'The Mercies' and 'The Dance Tree' respectively. Here we have Lettie's body buffeted by her surroundings and her interactions with others. For instance, she struggles against 'sheets of crying; buffeting walls of it'. Every interaction with her immediate situation sees Lettie's five senses respond reflexively: '[the] plants [...] sung to me.'
'Foxash' is perhaps the perfect novel: its pacing is sublimely precise; the characters are so perfectly tended and nurtured by the author; and the ending is handled with exquisite skill. It's like the British, prose fiction version of a couple of Robert Frost's best-known poems.
And a considerable part of the success of 'Foxash' for me is Alex Dunmore's performance of the audiobook. She imbues miniscule dips and peaks of emotion; she gestures with her voice as it wavers, gulps, breathes fluctuations in Lettie's inner monologues and dialogue with others. I was entirely caught up in her spellbinding narration.
My great gratitude to Headline Publishing Group Ltd, Whitehouse Sound Ltd, and Tinder Press for the opportunity to review a digital copy of the audiobook, and cite excerpts of the novel in order to review the text.
'Foxash' is the story of a body. Kate Worsley enroots the story in one woman's - Lettie's - body, and cultivates a form of high sensuousness full of the felt knowledge of the physical. Lettie tills on towards the novel's climax, experiencing every grain of the narrative as a bodily perception: '[my] body feels like syrup on a spoon.'
It's a story of growing: of growing crops on a smallholding (in the first year of production under the 1930s Land Settlement Association scheme) and the fertility of rural land; it's the story of growing sociality, co-operaton, neighbourliness and belonging; it's the story of a new life for a coalminer and his pitwife, growing seeds and plugs into cash crops of cucumbers and cane fruits. But more than that, 'Foxash' is the story of the female body growing; women's fertility; women's connectedness of spirit within the rural idyll. It's also the story of the growth of rot as collaboration breaks down; as decay grows within relationships; it's the chilling story of the insidious growth of spite, jealousy, and perfidy, and it all plays out in the media of what Lettie smells, tastes, sees, feels, hears.
In audiobooks, some Northern English accents in the wrong narrator's hands, can often come across as kiddish, somehow simple, and I've shied away from audiobooks narrated in accents from Yorkshire/Northumberland (that's just a personal preference and no reflection upon the regions themselves!). But in 'Foxash', Alex Dunmore speaks as Lettie in the first-person present tense, in vibrant, authentic, and naturalistic Northern speech; which softly folds around Lettie's constant descriptive awareness of her breasts, her genitals, her hair, face and skin. Especially and compusively, Lettie relates how her body is sited in her nightdress.
I found that I repeatedly heard in Lettie's voice echoes of Frances in 'The Paying Guests' (Sarah Waters, coincidentally, provides the endorsement on the cover of 'Foxash'). And just like 'The Paying Guests', the narrative of 'Foxash' comprises a woman's developing inter-relatedness with two persons in a couple with whom she finds herself in close confinement. This is compounded by Lettie's other personal and physical relationship: that with her husband Tommy. In Worsley's novel, both couples exhibit a real sense of attachment to their situation; every small instance of behaviour, a gesture within the shared square of space between the two couples. In the end, we see how every one of those persons' bodies is possessed and consumed by every other person, in some way. This kind of figurative mutual cannibalism also harked back to Sarah Waters' novel. The abortion scene in particular parallelled that in 'The Paying Guests'.
Likewise to Sarah Waters, I would also compare 'Foxash' to Kiran Millwood Hargrave's writing for adults. There is that physiologic claustrophobia and shrinking-down of the female protagonist's world, as is experienced by Hargrave's Maren and Lisbet in 'The Mercies' and 'The Dance Tree' respectively. Here we have Lettie's body buffeted by her surroundings and her interactions with others. For instance, she struggles against 'sheets of crying; buffeting walls of it'. Every interaction with her immediate situation sees Lettie's five senses respond reflexively: '[the] plants [...] sung to me.'
'Foxash' is perhaps the perfect novel: its pacing is sublimely precise; the characters are so perfectly tended and nurtured by the author; and the ending is handled with exquisite skill. It's like the British, prose fiction version of a couple of Robert Frost's best-known poems.
And a considerable part of the success of 'Foxash' for me is Alex Dunmore's performance of the audiobook. She imbues miniscule dips and peaks of emotion; she gestures with her voice as it wavers, gulps, breathes fluctuations in Lettie's inner monologues and dialogue with others. I was entirely caught up in her spellbinding narration.
My great gratitude to Headline Publishing Group Ltd, Whitehouse Sound Ltd, and Tinder Press for the opportunity to review a digital copy of the audiobook, and cite excerpts of the novel in order to review the text.
October 23, 2023
Firstly, a bit of background info for the book. Foxash did actually exist (although the events depicted here were not a true story).
Foxash was one of the many small-holdings set up in the 1930s by the Government’s Land Settlement Association.
In the book, Tommy and Lettie are from one the Pit Town of Easington, one of the areas that was viable for the scheme due to high unemployment.
They are placed next door to an established and capable couple, Adam and Jean Dell, whose apparent well-meaning advice and support turns ever more over-bearing as the book progresses.
I was bombarded with so many strong feelings whilst reading Foxash. I’ve not had such a visceral read in a long time (Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ comes to mind).
Kate Worsley sets up all the themes solidly - growth, the land, the seasons, the cycles (both of woman and the earth) - but she definitely lets the reader make all the connections for themselves.
Beautifully written and deeply immersive. Foxash manages to be ethereal but visceral at the same time.
And there’s an underlying darkness throughout the book and you can’t quite put your finger on why you feel uneasy.
The unease and darkness grows till about three quarters of the way through, the unease turns into an even darker feeling of dread.
With this kind of feeling, right about now I’d be expecting some kind of supernatural interference to occur.
But Kate Worsley doesn’t take the obvious or ‘easy’ way forward. This book is all the more haunting because there are no supernatural explanations. Foxash is dark without the need for any otherworldly bells and whistles.
This is a book that will haunt me for a long time!
Foxash was one of the many small-holdings set up in the 1930s by the Government’s Land Settlement Association.
In the book, Tommy and Lettie are from one the Pit Town of Easington, one of the areas that was viable for the scheme due to high unemployment.
They are placed next door to an established and capable couple, Adam and Jean Dell, whose apparent well-meaning advice and support turns ever more over-bearing as the book progresses.
I was bombarded with so many strong feelings whilst reading Foxash. I’ve not had such a visceral read in a long time (Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ comes to mind).
Kate Worsley sets up all the themes solidly - growth, the land, the seasons, the cycles (both of woman and the earth) - but she definitely lets the reader make all the connections for themselves.
Beautifully written and deeply immersive. Foxash manages to be ethereal but visceral at the same time.
And there’s an underlying darkness throughout the book and you can’t quite put your finger on why you feel uneasy.
The unease and darkness grows till about three quarters of the way through, the unease turns into an even darker feeling of dread.
With this kind of feeling, right about now I’d be expecting some kind of supernatural interference to occur.
But Kate Worsley doesn’t take the obvious or ‘easy’ way forward. This book is all the more haunting because there are no supernatural explanations. Foxash is dark without the need for any otherworldly bells and whistles.
This is a book that will haunt me for a long time!
September 7, 2025
4.25/5
“His moods filled the room even when he wasn’t in it.”
“What a huge excavation is going on down here inside me. Level after level. The pain keeps on flooding out of the darkness. The sides clamp tighter and tighter. Can’t smell, can’t see, can’t speak. I’m being pulled apart like a cracker. Vomit one end, shit the other. It’s abject, violent, unstoppable.”
“His moods filled the room even when he wasn’t in it.”
“What a huge excavation is going on down here inside me. Level after level. The pain keeps on flooding out of the darkness. The sides clamp tighter and tighter. Can’t smell, can’t see, can’t speak. I’m being pulled apart like a cracker. Vomit one end, shit the other. It’s abject, violent, unstoppable.”
January 24, 2024
hardcore fuckin with rural english gothic.. FOREVER A GOTHIC GIRLIE
February 16, 2023
I loved this book. I picked it up because I really liked the cover illustration in black, white and orange with its depiction of lush countryside and a farmer on a tractor taming the wildness. Inside the covers is an unsettling, visceral, dark tale.
The story is set in the 1930's in England and starts with Lettie, a young married woman arriving to join her husband, Tommy, who has signed up for a government scheme ( that really did exist) to train unemployed men to farm with financial assistance and the lease on a small holding. There are hints that something happened beyond their descent into poverty after Tommy lost his mining job. Lettie arrives at Foxash farm to find their accommodation is joined to another house and set well away from the families with children in the central zone. Their neighbours are an older couple Adam and Jean who grew up farming and are seemingly in tune with the rhythms of nature. They set out to win over Lettie as they seem to have done with her taciturn husband. Jean gives Lettie a delicious lettuce and a green potion , to "build her up" which seems to have aphrodisiac and psychotropic properties. Like the Tale of Rapunzel, Lettie cannot resist Jean's lettuce and late at night is driven to steal from Adam and Jean's glasshouse.. The consequences of this theft reverberate throughout the story as the couples get to know one another better and attempt to bring forth "fruit from the land" and their characters start to be revealed..
I wsa drawn into the narrative and altough it was signposted in parts what was really going on it helped to whet my appetite to find out how matters would be resolved.
The story is set in the 1930's in England and starts with Lettie, a young married woman arriving to join her husband, Tommy, who has signed up for a government scheme ( that really did exist) to train unemployed men to farm with financial assistance and the lease on a small holding. There are hints that something happened beyond their descent into poverty after Tommy lost his mining job. Lettie arrives at Foxash farm to find their accommodation is joined to another house and set well away from the families with children in the central zone. Their neighbours are an older couple Adam and Jean who grew up farming and are seemingly in tune with the rhythms of nature. They set out to win over Lettie as they seem to have done with her taciturn husband. Jean gives Lettie a delicious lettuce and a green potion , to "build her up" which seems to have aphrodisiac and psychotropic properties. Like the Tale of Rapunzel, Lettie cannot resist Jean's lettuce and late at night is driven to steal from Adam and Jean's glasshouse.. The consequences of this theft reverberate throughout the story as the couples get to know one another better and attempt to bring forth "fruit from the land" and their characters start to be revealed..
I wsa drawn into the narrative and altough it was signposted in parts what was really going on it helped to whet my appetite to find out how matters would be resolved.
May 27, 2023
I loved this book. So atmospheric and gripping, it kept me guessing til the very end. Marvellous.
April 25, 2024
If you’re looking for an unsettling folk horror novel then I recommend checking out Foxash.
The story centres around Lettie and her husband who relocate to Essex searching for a more wholesome and rural life working the land. As the seasons shift you begin to see that things aren’t quite as they seem and a foreboding sense of dread begins to build under a seemingly calm rural existence. An unexpected event then occurs and the story catapults from there.
It sounds uneventful but this quiet story will get under your skin. The whimsical writing added an enchanting touch to this creepy folk horror tale.
Let me just say you will never look at lettuce the same way again!
The story centres around Lettie and her husband who relocate to Essex searching for a more wholesome and rural life working the land. As the seasons shift you begin to see that things aren’t quite as they seem and a foreboding sense of dread begins to build under a seemingly calm rural existence. An unexpected event then occurs and the story catapults from there.
It sounds uneventful but this quiet story will get under your skin. The whimsical writing added an enchanting touch to this creepy folk horror tale.
Let me just say you will never look at lettuce the same way again!
April 12, 2023
I wasn’t too sure what to expect from Foxash by Kate Worsley. It’s set in the not too distant past, in the 1930s. I was not familiar the Land Settlement Association scheme and found it really interesting reading about it.
Tommy and his wife Lettie relocate from the North East to a smallholding in the Foxash settlement in Essex, part of a Government scheme to get the unemployed back into work and working on the land.
The story unfolds from Lettie’s perspective. She’s a young woman who has left her home and friends and all she’s known to travel to another part of the country to become a smallholder. She has no experience of farming, having only worked in a Tea House and being a miner’s wife. I really got behind Lettie and Tommy and really wanted them to make a success of their smallholding. I enjoyed following how despite all the odds they made their smallholding a success.
Two neighbouring smallholders, Jean and Adam Dell, who have successfully managed their smallholding for years take Lettie and Tommy under their wing and give them tips and help with the planting and harvesting. The smallholders work all hours on the land. The seasons come and go, crops are planted and harvested. Friendships develop and grow. It feels like a pastoral idyll.
The Settlement is their world. Jean and Adam and Lettie and Tommy beginning to live in each others pockets. Without giving away spoilers, things begin to take a darker turn and the Settlement becomes far less idyllic and things begin to feel more stifling and secrets are uncovered.
Alix Dunmore is a brilliant narrator and she really made the book feel so atmospheric. She really brought the book to life - she was quite simply Lettie .
Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Headline Tinder Press, for making this audio-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest and review. I look forward to reading other books by Kate Worsley in the future.
Tommy and his wife Lettie relocate from the North East to a smallholding in the Foxash settlement in Essex, part of a Government scheme to get the unemployed back into work and working on the land.
The story unfolds from Lettie’s perspective. She’s a young woman who has left her home and friends and all she’s known to travel to another part of the country to become a smallholder. She has no experience of farming, having only worked in a Tea House and being a miner’s wife. I really got behind Lettie and Tommy and really wanted them to make a success of their smallholding. I enjoyed following how despite all the odds they made their smallholding a success.
Two neighbouring smallholders, Jean and Adam Dell, who have successfully managed their smallholding for years take Lettie and Tommy under their wing and give them tips and help with the planting and harvesting. The smallholders work all hours on the land. The seasons come and go, crops are planted and harvested. Friendships develop and grow. It feels like a pastoral idyll.
The Settlement is their world. Jean and Adam and Lettie and Tommy beginning to live in each others pockets. Without giving away spoilers, things begin to take a darker turn and the Settlement becomes far less idyllic and things begin to feel more stifling and secrets are uncovered.
Alix Dunmore is a brilliant narrator and she really made the book feel so atmospheric. She really brought the book to life - she was quite simply Lettie .
Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Headline Tinder Press, for making this audio-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest and review. I look forward to reading other books by Kate Worsley in the future.
February 24, 2023
Thank you to @Netgalley and Headline for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Tommy and Lettie Radley, worn down by poverty jump at the chance of being smallholders down in Essex thanks to a government scheme to put the unemployed back into work. They settle into life with their neighbours and only day to day companions working the land but soon it becomes clear that things, past and present, are possibly not all they seem.
I’m not sure if I realised what I was about to read. In fact, I definitely didn’t.
This is a dark novel, though at first you don’t realise just how dark. It is very atmospheric, claustrophobic and sticks with you, even when not reading. I felt a sense of unease all the way through and was drawn in completely to this enclosed life of a couple that seemed hemmed in and isolated apart from their neighbours. Considering this was a book about escaping to the country, if you like, I felt trapped just reading it. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is the point.
I have to admit I found the language and writing style difficult to follow at times but it is beautifully written. There were paragraphs I had to re read as I didn’t quite understand what was happening and Lettie would often go off into the past and throw me off track.
The last chapters were truly gothic and disturbing and the ending was done very well, as I wasn’t sure how she would finish off this truly chilling tale.
I’m rating this a 4 star because even though I’m not crazy about it I think that’s because this isn’t really my preferred genre and it’s left me feeling a bit uncomfortable, but for lovers of this kind of thing I imagine that’s exactly the feeling they want to get from a book like this.
Well written, completely original, if you like the slow burning creeps give it a go.
Tommy and Lettie Radley, worn down by poverty jump at the chance of being smallholders down in Essex thanks to a government scheme to put the unemployed back into work. They settle into life with their neighbours and only day to day companions working the land but soon it becomes clear that things, past and present, are possibly not all they seem.
I’m not sure if I realised what I was about to read. In fact, I definitely didn’t.
This is a dark novel, though at first you don’t realise just how dark. It is very atmospheric, claustrophobic and sticks with you, even when not reading. I felt a sense of unease all the way through and was drawn in completely to this enclosed life of a couple that seemed hemmed in and isolated apart from their neighbours. Considering this was a book about escaping to the country, if you like, I felt trapped just reading it. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is the point.
I have to admit I found the language and writing style difficult to follow at times but it is beautifully written. There were paragraphs I had to re read as I didn’t quite understand what was happening and Lettie would often go off into the past and throw me off track.
The last chapters were truly gothic and disturbing and the ending was done very well, as I wasn’t sure how she would finish off this truly chilling tale.
I’m rating this a 4 star because even though I’m not crazy about it I think that’s because this isn’t really my preferred genre and it’s left me feeling a bit uncomfortable, but for lovers of this kind of thing I imagine that’s exactly the feeling they want to get from a book like this.
Well written, completely original, if you like the slow burning creeps give it a go.
February 27, 2023
For me, this was a slow burn but, I loved it.
Foxash is set in a time of interwar economic hardship and life without an NHS when illness is treated with home remedies. Tommy has been a coal miner in County Durham but the novel finds him and his wife Lettie settling in a new area in a market gardening scheme which felt like Cambridgeshire or Essex. "The Association" is based on a real organisation, The Land Settlement Association which provided the potential for future security aimed at the unemployed from industrial areas. Tommy & Lettie know nothing about running a smallholding and soon become reliant on their neighbours, the Dells.
I found the pace of the story which follows the rhythm of the gardening calendar, paralleling crop growing, slow and steady then fast and furious! The families live in each others pockets, the women never leaving the scheme and the men only occasionally. Their backstories are all tenuous and seem to provide more questions than answers. Their lives entwine as the story becomes more claustrophobic, menacing and unsettling.
Whilst the story is a very human one, the land and the seasons play a major part in the plot development. I was reminded of Lolly Willowes (Sylvia Townsend Warner) and also All Among the Barley (Melissa Harrison), yet this is a new (to me) voice with an intriguing and addictive voice.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Books for the opportunity to read and review
Foxash is set in a time of interwar economic hardship and life without an NHS when illness is treated with home remedies. Tommy has been a coal miner in County Durham but the novel finds him and his wife Lettie settling in a new area in a market gardening scheme which felt like Cambridgeshire or Essex. "The Association" is based on a real organisation, The Land Settlement Association which provided the potential for future security aimed at the unemployed from industrial areas. Tommy & Lettie know nothing about running a smallholding and soon become reliant on their neighbours, the Dells.
I found the pace of the story which follows the rhythm of the gardening calendar, paralleling crop growing, slow and steady then fast and furious! The families live in each others pockets, the women never leaving the scheme and the men only occasionally. Their backstories are all tenuous and seem to provide more questions than answers. Their lives entwine as the story becomes more claustrophobic, menacing and unsettling.
Whilst the story is a very human one, the land and the seasons play a major part in the plot development. I was reminded of Lolly Willowes (Sylvia Townsend Warner) and also All Among the Barley (Melissa Harrison), yet this is a new (to me) voice with an intriguing and addictive voice.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Books for the opportunity to read and review
June 27, 2025
3.5 stars ⭐️
What a very specific, homegrown atmosphere is “Foxash”! And Lettie is a character I want to see succeed as she’s not a stereotype though she’s also, in many ways, “like other girls”. I like this because it’s the place where most of us live and makes her extremely relatable.
The creepiness factor starts immediately and continues in the closed quarters of these two neighbors; the last ~50 pages are that last part of the roller coaster downhill, you’re not stopping it and you’re stuck strapped in.
Overall, the beautiful writing and swinging perspectives from Lettie were stronger for me than the overarching story; I love what this book said about poverty, sexual repression, expectations (especially the glorifying of homesteading in the wake of the Van Life movement), and gender, but do feel I had to do a lot of the heavy lifting there.
What a very specific, homegrown atmosphere is “Foxash”! And Lettie is a character I want to see succeed as she’s not a stereotype though she’s also, in many ways, “like other girls”. I like this because it’s the place where most of us live and makes her extremely relatable.
The creepiness factor starts immediately and continues in the closed quarters of these two neighbors; the last ~50 pages are that last part of the roller coaster downhill, you’re not stopping it and you’re stuck strapped in.
Overall, the beautiful writing and swinging perspectives from Lettie were stronger for me than the overarching story; I love what this book said about poverty, sexual repression, expectations (especially the glorifying of homesteading in the wake of the Van Life movement), and gender, but do feel I had to do a lot of the heavy lifting there.
April 4, 2023
The first thing I noticed about Foxash by Kate Worsley is the stunning cover. The book definitely lives up to its promise but in a most unexpected way.
The story is set in the 1930s. Young Lettie Radley is travelling from Durham to join her husband, Tommy, in Essex. Poverty and lack of work has brought an estrangement between the couple, but they have been offered a chance at a new life. Can she rescue her marriage to her precious Tommy?
The Radleys have been accepted by a government scheme aimed at resettling the unemployed, and Tommy has gone ahead of Lettie to learn the art of being a smallholder. At first everything seems to be going swimmingly. Their new neighbours, Adam and Jean Dent, are an older couple and experienced smallholders. They offer friendship and educate the newcomers about growing their crops and taking care of their animals. The younger pair must reach a certain standard during a probation period, or risk losing their home and livelihood. Lettie seems to forgive everyone except herself for any failings, but she is suspicious of the Dents and their over-familiarity with her husband.
About half-way through the book the author ramps up the tension. It becomes clear that Lettie isn’t just an anxious young woman: a shadow hangs over her, and she fears that some terrible event in the couple’s past will catch up with them and ruin their new lives. I felt much more engaged with the book at this point, hoping that whatever the mysterious issues were, they would be resolved. Then, just when it seemed that things were getting bad for the Radleys, they got worse!
The plot will have you reading on, as the author only tells you the background story on a ‘need-to know’ basis. Gradually we learn of mistakes that Lettie has made in the past. She is very guarded, even with her husband. Their roles are probably typical for the 1930s, but she seems powerless to stand up for herself. She also spurns Jean’s friendship, even though the women are thrown together frequently.
What I loved most about Foxash is the way that the author weaves in rural lore, such as going to tell the bees about significant events, and the natural changes in the countryside as the seasons change. It is almost claustrophobic in its detailed descriptions of the countryside, the oppressive heat of the greenhouse and the chill of winter mornings with the cry of foxes. Lettie’s world was never vast, but it has become much smaller: she never leaves the smallholding and seldom meets anyone other than her neighbours. As compensation she learns to observe nature and how it behaves in a way that she hasn’t previously, and we seldom would today. We witness the growth and transformation that envelops everything, even Lettie herself. Oh and there’s quite a lot of information about lettuces!
Foxash is a lovely book, which is both a surprising and a rewarding read. I’d probably describe it as tense, historical fiction, and I’m a bit surprised that it’s categorised as gothic, and LGBTQ on some websites. Give it a go and see what you think.
The story is set in the 1930s. Young Lettie Radley is travelling from Durham to join her husband, Tommy, in Essex. Poverty and lack of work has brought an estrangement between the couple, but they have been offered a chance at a new life. Can she rescue her marriage to her precious Tommy?
The Radleys have been accepted by a government scheme aimed at resettling the unemployed, and Tommy has gone ahead of Lettie to learn the art of being a smallholder. At first everything seems to be going swimmingly. Their new neighbours, Adam and Jean Dent, are an older couple and experienced smallholders. They offer friendship and educate the newcomers about growing their crops and taking care of their animals. The younger pair must reach a certain standard during a probation period, or risk losing their home and livelihood. Lettie seems to forgive everyone except herself for any failings, but she is suspicious of the Dents and their over-familiarity with her husband.
About half-way through the book the author ramps up the tension. It becomes clear that Lettie isn’t just an anxious young woman: a shadow hangs over her, and she fears that some terrible event in the couple’s past will catch up with them and ruin their new lives. I felt much more engaged with the book at this point, hoping that whatever the mysterious issues were, they would be resolved. Then, just when it seemed that things were getting bad for the Radleys, they got worse!
The plot will have you reading on, as the author only tells you the background story on a ‘need-to know’ basis. Gradually we learn of mistakes that Lettie has made in the past. She is very guarded, even with her husband. Their roles are probably typical for the 1930s, but she seems powerless to stand up for herself. She also spurns Jean’s friendship, even though the women are thrown together frequently.
What I loved most about Foxash is the way that the author weaves in rural lore, such as going to tell the bees about significant events, and the natural changes in the countryside as the seasons change. It is almost claustrophobic in its detailed descriptions of the countryside, the oppressive heat of the greenhouse and the chill of winter mornings with the cry of foxes. Lettie’s world was never vast, but it has become much smaller: she never leaves the smallholding and seldom meets anyone other than her neighbours. As compensation she learns to observe nature and how it behaves in a way that she hasn’t previously, and we seldom would today. We witness the growth and transformation that envelops everything, even Lettie herself. Oh and there’s quite a lot of information about lettuces!
Foxash is a lovely book, which is both a surprising and a rewarding read. I’d probably describe it as tense, historical fiction, and I’m a bit surprised that it’s categorised as gothic, and LGBTQ on some websites. Give it a go and see what you think.
May 3, 2023
3.5*
Foxash is a rather unusual novel, and all the better for it. The setting is interesting, and one I had never heard of - a 1930's British government scheme to get former industrial workers into agricultural work. Very interesting premise and vividly portrayed.
It was very interesting to read a detailed description of Lettie and Tommy's daily life trying to work a smallholding without any prior farming skills. In particular, the daily drudgery of Lettie's work with only one other couple near them, while she misses the company of neighbours and the [comparative] buzz of a local community. She's a truly original and interesting character; she's at times thoroughly unlikeable, but then you swing back to rooting for her. It's cleverly done and adds to the uneasy tension.
In the early part of the book, where the historical novel prevails, it works and is an engaging read. But then it gets weirder and the 'intrigue', for lack of a better word while avoiding spoilers, takes over from the historical aspect. It's well written, and I get that the sort of destabilising sense is supposed to reflect Lettie's mental state. Unfortunately, I felt it was somewhat overdone, so I was conscious of objectively feeling 'now it's just confusing' rather than just letting myself get carried away into the story's unsettling atmosphere.
Overall, it feels like two books meshed into one, which was a bit unfortunate. I think I might have enjoyed it more if it had been a 'simpler' story of a couple uprooted from their familiar industrial background to this challenging government scheme (potentially a 4-star read for me), without the weird subplot. Which in itself could have been a standalone book, without that very particular setting. (No, I'm not trying to tell an author how to write her book, just pointing out what I might have liked to read.)
The cover is wonderful.
Foxash is a rather unusual novel, and all the better for it. The setting is interesting, and one I had never heard of - a 1930's British government scheme to get former industrial workers into agricultural work. Very interesting premise and vividly portrayed.
It was very interesting to read a detailed description of Lettie and Tommy's daily life trying to work a smallholding without any prior farming skills. In particular, the daily drudgery of Lettie's work with only one other couple near them, while she misses the company of neighbours and the [comparative] buzz of a local community. She's a truly original and interesting character; she's at times thoroughly unlikeable, but then you swing back to rooting for her. It's cleverly done and adds to the uneasy tension.
In the early part of the book, where the historical novel prevails, it works and is an engaging read. But then it gets weirder and the 'intrigue', for lack of a better word while avoiding spoilers, takes over from the historical aspect. It's well written, and I get that the sort of destabilising sense is supposed to reflect Lettie's mental state. Unfortunately, I felt it was somewhat overdone, so I was conscious of objectively feeling 'now it's just confusing' rather than just letting myself get carried away into the story's unsettling atmosphere.
Overall, it feels like two books meshed into one, which was a bit unfortunate. I think I might have enjoyed it more if it had been a 'simpler' story of a couple uprooted from their familiar industrial background to this challenging government scheme (potentially a 4-star read for me), without the weird subplot. Which in itself could have been a standalone book, without that very particular setting. (No, I'm not trying to tell an author how to write her book, just pointing out what I might have liked to read.)
The cover is wonderful.
February 9, 2023
Set during the depression after the Great War, the novel starts with Lettie, the main character joining her husband Tommy a former miner in the Essex countryside where they have been employed through a government scheme to manage a small holding. It is apparent that they are also running away from a past of secrets. Despite being set in the country, this novel was bleak and claustrophobic. The story at times was difficult to absorb as the writing narrates while leaving so many questions. There was dialogue between characters that was superficial and actual communication was sparse. There were glimmers of really interesting storylines such as the children’s home that had shaped Lettie, her disfigurement which didn’t lend itself to the storyline, of loss and hardship for both her and Tommy which were there in the background but never really explained. I felt that there were too many gaps. The storyline didn’t feel as though it hit the spot as far as the novel’s description, but I feel that this was the writing style and not the story idea which while slow and initially appeared in contrast ended up being something which I hadn’t seen coming.
Overall - an interesting read about a real life scheme that I knew very little about. I found that the writing style for me made this book harder to pick up and enjoy.
Thank you to NetGalley, and the publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest review
Overall - an interesting read about a real life scheme that I knew very little about. I found that the writing style for me made this book harder to pick up and enjoy.
Thank you to NetGalley, and the publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest review
January 11, 2024
Foxash by Kate Worsley
If you like a bit of folk horror with your historical fiction, or if you enjoyed Starveacre, that haunting novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, you might really savour this darkly strange story.
In 1934 the Land Settlement Association was established in Britain to lead a ‘back to the land’ movement to improve food security within the country. The unemployed miners and labourers identified were moved largely to Essex and Suffolk and trained to set up small holdings.
One of the crops grown on the small holdings was the so-called ‘miner’s lettuce’, which was used to treat scurvy during the C19th. The Rapunzel lettuce plays a large part in this novel; the main character is called Lettie and together with her husband Tommy she embarks on a journey to Essex to start a new life after some unexplained incident in their former life prompts them to move.
Lettie and Tommy are mentored by their neighbours and experienced farmers Adam and Jean Dell. An uneasy friendship develops and things become quite macabre. There are strange desires, dark passions and jealousies. And when the corn dollies appear, well, you know you’re in for a thrill.
I hadn’t heard of this book, but when Sarah Waters recommended it, I knew I’d have to give it a read.
If you like a bit of folk horror with your historical fiction, or if you enjoyed Starveacre, that haunting novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, you might really savour this darkly strange story.
In 1934 the Land Settlement Association was established in Britain to lead a ‘back to the land’ movement to improve food security within the country. The unemployed miners and labourers identified were moved largely to Essex and Suffolk and trained to set up small holdings.
One of the crops grown on the small holdings was the so-called ‘miner’s lettuce’, which was used to treat scurvy during the C19th. The Rapunzel lettuce plays a large part in this novel; the main character is called Lettie and together with her husband Tommy she embarks on a journey to Essex to start a new life after some unexplained incident in their former life prompts them to move.
Lettie and Tommy are mentored by their neighbours and experienced farmers Adam and Jean Dell. An uneasy friendship develops and things become quite macabre. There are strange desires, dark passions and jealousies. And when the corn dollies appear, well, you know you’re in for a thrill.
I hadn’t heard of this book, but when Sarah Waters recommended it, I knew I’d have to give it a read.
April 12, 2023
It was a pleasure to listen to such a wonderful narration of this evocative story about Lettie and her husband Tommy. Lettie narrates, and describes her life before and after marrying Tommy. They fall on hard times when the coal pit closes and decide to take advantage of a government initiative which supports their move from the North-East to Essex to work on their own smallholding. They become close friends with their neighbours, Jean and Adam, and to begin with all goes well as they adapt to their new lifestyle. All four have secrets to keep and slowly, but surely, things start to unravel. I found this a compulsive read, thoroughly enjoyable. The beautiful book cover was a real draw too.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
April 27, 2023
I really enjoyed "Foxash" by Kate Worsley. Ok, I didn't pick up on the gothic sensibility, but there was definitely something unnerving about the book and Lettie and Tommy's new neighbours, when they move into their allocated plot at Foxash. What I liked about the book is that I learned something new in British History: the land settlement act. This book was fantastically informative and deeply uncomfortable at the same time. Helpful neighbours who appear to have grown lettuce that arouses desires in Lettie that she never knew she had. Can't say I've ever read another "lettuce-loving" book. However, there was one detail towards the end of the book that left me feeling sordid and used. Only great books can do that!
April 27, 2023
Foxash is a remarkable novel which tells of a rural experiment during the 1930's in England. From the very first page the author establishes a strong sense of voice with Lettie, from whose perspective the narrative is told.
If you would like to read my full review please visit my blog at:
https://leftontheshelfbookblog.blogsp...
If you would like to read my full review please visit my blog at:
https://leftontheshelfbookblog.blogsp...
May 12, 2023
I’m 1934 the Land Settlement Association started buying up farms and brought long term unemployed industrial workers from the north to man them. This is the story of Tommy, a miner, and Lettie his wife at Foxash. Life is hard, very hard but for Lettie it seems barely tolerable.
A gripping narrative, well told.
A gripping narrative, well told.
September 19, 2023
What a superb book! It’s a while since I’ve read a book with a true twist in the tail and this was a very surprising ending. Very well written with excellent descriptions of the living conditions giving the reader ample material to picture the small holding and everyday life between the Radleys and the Dells.
April 9, 2023
Rapunzel twisted and set in the 1930s. Lots packed in - market gardening, poverty, mining, society, housekeeping, charity, superstition, gender roles, maternity.
Just as you think I've heard enough about a subject, the author picks up another, the specialist knowledge justifying the plot.
Just as you think I've heard enough about a subject, the author picks up another, the specialist knowledge justifying the plot.
January 31, 2024
Slowish start. I was invested in the history of the Land Settlement Scheme. There are not enough stories set in the inter war years in my opinion. But this is more than that and the last 1/3 of the book romps along with a mystery (that I did see coming when they were growing Rapunzel lettuce)
July 16, 2023
This is an uncanny, sticky, weird story that just cranks up the weirdness right till the end. I'm not sure what I just read but I liked it.
August 15, 2023
Foxash is a book to relish and to submerge yourself into.Kate Worsley's style is unique and uplifting and I turned each page with a deep sense of foreboding.
February 19, 2024
Really interesting for the historical aspects but earthy in places. There is an air of mystery over both the couples and a suitable twist in the end.
March 30, 2024
They had me at "unsettling". If the audio book is an option for you, I'd highly recommend. The woman reading is incredible.
July 9, 2023
Bit slow to start but the end was mad!
November 15, 2025
3.5
I kind of guessed most of what happens, but still. Tommy’s reveal. So brusque and ragged. I guessed that early on, but still. I’m going with a happily ever after for Lettie. She deserves it.
I kind of guessed most of what happens, but still. Tommy’s reveal. So brusque and ragged. I guessed that early on, but still. I’m going with a happily ever after for Lettie. She deserves it.
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