I enjoyed reading this book (which is now out in paperback).
This book is about Foxes: hunted Foxes, urban Foxes, hen-eating Foxes, Foxes in literature and country lore. Foxes in our heads and in our hearts. It’s a well-written largely affectionate but not sentimental look at Foxes from lots of angles and it’s a very good read.
It reminded me of what I always thought to be a strange contrast between the conversations I would sometimes have at Game Fairs (well, I was mostly expected to listen rather than discuss) when I was told how verminous the Fox was and that they had to be killed for their own sakes, for the sake of wildlife and to protect the very fabric of rural society, and the huge numbers of prints of drawings and paintings of wily old Renard, dressed as a country gentleman which were on sale at the same event and presumably sometimes found their way into the houses of the spluttering countrymen who were telling me what was what. We should all read this book to see Foxes from different angles and to have some myths dispelled.
I rarely see Foxes – I wish I did. When I do see them it is more often walking rather confidently down a London street as I head back to my bed for the night than out in the countryside. I don’t recall ever seeing a Fox in my street or even in my small rural town in over 30 years of living here.
Foxes Unearthed: a story of love and loathing in modern Britain by Lucy Jones is published by Elliott & Thompson.
I’ve always admired foxes, beautiful and resourceful creature that they are. Anything that can survive successfully in all environments gets my vote. For me, it’s something to be celebrated. But human beings don’t like animals that get one over them and hence their vilification over the centuries. You can’t blame a fox for behaving like a fox.
In myth and folklore across the world their wily nature is more often seen in a good than in a bad way. My favourite fox is Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen (Příhody lišky Bystroušky in which Vixen Sharp Ears has sundry adventures including politicizing a flock of hens then eating them before herself being shot by a poacher (she is one of the few title-role heroines in popular opera to die before the final scene.)
Whenever I killed a fox , I would try to place it under some cover , and put a sprig of greenery over its head.
Even if it had killed me a hundred Pheasants, you couldn’t blame it.
Sometimes one has to enter the dark side in order to realise that ‘verminous’ creatures such as the fox are in fact just another piece of nature struggling to survive in a human world.
I have in mind a book to write, entitled ‘A Repentant Fox Killer’, where my life is changed after destroying hundreds of the beautiful animals.
I shall seek out Foxes Unearthed.
I read this. A great book, an easy read and covers our historic relationship with them from just about every angle, including foxes on social media.