This story was very slow burning, which I enjoy. I did engage well with the characters. I found some elements of the storyline strange without giving away anything. I loved the historical fictions elements of the story, particularly at the beginning of the story when it was particularly slow burning which did help with that.

I loved this slow burn of a novel. Foxash is an unusual story, and the main character, Lettie isn't wholly likeable, But Kate Worsley expertly drew me in, ratcheting up the tension page by page.

Lettie Radley and her miner husband Tommy have taken up the offer of a Government run smallholding scheme, and they move to Essex, where they know no one. Their only neighbours, Jean and Adam Dell, are insular and slightly sinister. As Lettie tries to adapt to life on the land, secrets loom, and there is no escaping the past...

I loved this literary, slightly Gothic tale, the perfect Autumn read.

This book is so good, that I don't think I can actually put in to words how it made me feel. This is such an evocative and visceral read that at times the hair on the back of my neck went up and I felt like I was being watched.

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’ is set in the 1930s, a time that saw my own father thrown out of the family home in a Lancashire cotton town, because he was unemployed and a drain on the family purse. The shame of that grinding poverty cast a shadow across the rest of his life.

So, I could really relate (if only at second-hand) to the story of Lettie and her husband Tommy who see a government scheme to relocate the unemployed from areas such as the mining country of Co Durham to Essex to grow the food the nation needs as a chance of a new start.

The author’s research into the period and the Land Settlement movement (about which I knew nothing) is truly impressive. I could really ‘see’ their allocated small-holding (their “four-acre Eden”) and was enthralled by the practicalities of their efforts to fit in and produce their quotas.

I thought the plot was slowly but surely developed, and, unlike some reviewers, I do think the four main characters – Letty, Tommy, and their neighbours and mentors Jean and Adam Dell are well-drawn and credible, especially Lettie’s mixture of aspiration and her townie’s suspicion of the countryside.

What holds me back from awarding the novel 5 stars is that I didn’t like any of them! None of them provides the moral focus, the lens through which the reader see the other characters, and with whom we sympathise. All seem out to satisfy their own desires and happy to use other people for their own ends. All have dark secrets.

Otherwise, it’s a fabulous read and I look forward to reading more from this author – especially if she decides to write a factual book about the period.

Reading the blurb of this book, it was the promised gothic sensibility that attracted me, so I was disappointed that for the entire first half of the book, the only hint of anything remotely gothic was the Rapunzel vibes given by Lettie's inexplicable yearning to eat her neighbour's lettuce. It was almost painfully slow, because nothing happened, except for repeated scenes of Lettie getting sweaty, getting aroused, getting her period, all in more detail than I really needed.

The plot only turned a little bit gothic at the very end of the book, but I was so entirely unprepared for it at this point that it jarred. It didn't work at all for me - I just found it unpleasant - and then before any of it was truly explored, the story abruptly ended.

I think Kate Worsley has a talent for creating visual images with words, and in that respect the book is well written, but the story itself was lacking for me, and the characters felt flat and unappealing. I didn't like it at all.

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.

This book felt completely different to what I was expecting based on the blurb on the back.
I found it quite hard to focus on and the entire atmosphere of the book felt claustrophobic and dark.

It's set post First World War, in the 30's which was a time of financial hardship and drudgery. Telling the story of two sets of neighbours who embark on a Government scheme to provide work for unemployed industrial workers who's lives become intertwined and darker as the book goes on.

A well researched book about an era that I don't know particularly well, but sadly it wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read and review this ARC.

I loved the cover and was attracted by the blurb. I was expecting something darker and more gothic. It's a bleak story, there's secrets but you can feel the tension only after you discover that Lettie has secrets as other people.
It was very slow and even if I love the last part it took ages before reaching that part.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This sounded like my perfect novel - the bleak, gothic, ominous setting and the claustrophobic storyline. Set in the inter-war years. Lettie heads south (from the NE to Essex) to join her boyfriend. Tommy, who is working on a new, government-allocated settlement. The neighbours, Jean and Adam, are very different, particularly from Lettie.

Essentially, the novel is about their lives at Foxash and how the couples have to grow produce to sell. There is a darker side to the story, though, one which weaves its way through the narrative, although is not perhaps as dominant as the blurb suggests. Lettie becomes pregnant, followed shortly by Jean, and this is where the book becomes more strange.

For me, the opening is brilliant - such evocative character description and a visceral sense of place. Later, when both women give birth , things become less strong in terms of the story. There are reasons for Lettie’s behaviour but the latter third of the book detracts somewhat for me.

Overall, this is s good read, one rooted in real-life historical happenings.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

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.

A claustrophobic and unsettling read about a couple moving to an isolated settlement under a government scheme. Well written but very slow and predictable. Not one for me.

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.

It is not a novel to read quickly, though you may feel like devouring it in one sitting. Take your time, savour the evocation of the time and place Worsley conjures. You can feel the 1930s bought to life with such clarity that you can smell the earth.

This is a wonderful novel which I had the pleasure of reading in an ARC with thanks to the publishers and Netgalley.

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

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.

There are a lot of novels which base themselves on the 'new start that become sinister' trope but Foxash, with its murky backstory, works it very well. It's an interesting one and I look forward to seeing what she does next.

This novel reminded me of Claire Fuller - it had the same unsettling atmosphere, the same incredible attention to detail, the same focus on brilliant, rich and not always likeable characters. It’s a fine novel.

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.

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

There's something very unsettling about this whole book, though I couldn't always put my finger on what.
So much is left in the air to only guess at.
Despite being set in open fields and fresh ait it's incredibly claustrophobic, just the four characters living in each others pockets.
The unease continues all the way to the end.
Not quite the read I thought I was getting .
Very good.