Foxash: 'A wonderfully atmospheric and deeply unsettling novel' Sarah Waters

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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. To give you some idea about suitability, the following events have been or are planned to be held at Foxash Social Club:

Foxash by Kate Worsley | Goodreads

This venue is a Community Centre on one level. We use a large room, which is wheelchair accessible and has easy access to toilet facilities. We also have use of a kitchen. Our Ukulele Club meets here each Thursday morning.D'Arcy Rd 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.

This was a fantastic audiobook! The narration was brilliant with clear distinction between the characters. 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. 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 . A Maintenance Unit, based behind the LSA stores, was responsible for repairs to houses and glasshouses with specialist plumbers, carpenters, etc. The team was led by Phil Hooper, who later moved to Spain. “The maintenance man in the 1960s and early 70s was Bill Lay Flurrie who apparently fixed most things with a large hammer and some nails!! He needed to mix a small amount of cement at ours once and used the washing up bowl from the kitchen!” (Diane King, nee Chapman No 19)

Foxash Social Club - Hall Hire in Manningtree CO11 - Social Foxash Social Club - Hall Hire in Manningtree CO11 - Social

Would you like to learn to play the ukulele? Then come and join us on Thursday mornings. We have ukuleles for you to use, and you can even take one home with you to practice. To book a place call Victoria on 07710 177050.The allocation of smallholdings to the unemployed was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War through the necessity of increasing food production; favour was then given to those already with horticultural skills. After the war the Association was incorporated within the 1947 Agricultural Act for statutory provision of smallholdings designed as a first step for those going into agricultural production. Kate explains the inspiration behind her latest novel, Foxash, set in Foxash Land Settlement Association in Lawford. In 1936, 1,000 unemployed miners and shipbuilders were relocated to 20 locations across England to begin new lives as market gardeners. 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. Professor Wise was appointed by the Government in 1963 to report on the LSA. His findings published in 1967, recommended that the number of LSAs be reduced to 10. 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.

Foxash Estate photos, maps, books, memories - Francis Frith

Foxash tells the story of Tommy and Lettie Radley, a couple who in a chance to escape the poverty in their lives, become smallholders in Essex. The story that ensures is dark, unsettling and disturbing, yet is shot through with beauty. Kate Worsley's writing is superb; there are lines here you happily read twice for the strength of the writing is that good. With this kind of feeling, right about now I’d be expecting some kind of supernatural interference to occur.Lettie is a miner’s wife. As a woman, she doesn’t ask for much out of life. It’s the Great Depression, her husband has lost his job and they are penniless. Lettie is cautiously optimistic when she and her husband are granted relocation from a “Special Area” to a government-sponsored farming community. She’s grateful when the couple on the adjacent farm go out of their way to help them get established during their first farming season. The Museum of English rural Life (MERL) at Reading University will have the original bill of sale, acreage, etc).