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

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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. Foxash was one of the many small-holdings set up in the 1930s by the Government’s Land Settlement Association.

Foxash Land Settlement Association - KITW

We offer a range of activities each week - art, craft, pool competitions, quizzes, music session, sewing, puzzles, darts competitions. There is a disco not the first Tuesday of every mont, and a music session on the last Tuesday of the month.

Wednesdays 12.30pm-2.30pm. This group is currently free but places MUST be pre-booked by calling Victoria on 07710 177050. Bring your own lunch. The Club is a chance to meet friends and socialise. Different activities each week. For more information call Victoria 07710 177050

Foxash Estate, Tendring - area information, map, walks and more Foxash Estate, Tendring - area information, map, walks and more

Qualifications, Experience, Morality, Ethics and Integrity are just some of the words that Georgie Welge prides herself on following.

We offer a range of activities, including art, craft, games, plus outdoor sports and games when the weather allows. There is a small coffee bar and the bar is open.

A look ahead to the 2023 Essex Book Festival | Great British Life

I found it quite hard to focus on and the entire atmosphere of the book felt claustrophobic and dark. Small-holdings were grouped in communities which were expected to run agricultural production as cooperative market gardens, with materials bought and produce sold exclusively through the Association. All applicants were interviewed and given agricultural training before being assigned a property. 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!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) 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. I have to say firstly that if you have suffered miscarriage or baby loss then I'd definitely give this one a miss.*

Foxash by Kate Worsley | Waterstones Foxash by Kate Worsley | Waterstones

Worn down by poverty, Lettie Radley arrives in Foxash, Essex to join her out-of-work miner husband Tommy. Their new smallholding may well be the 'fairy-tale home’ the (Land Settlement) Association promised, but she has trouble accepting the new neighbours, Jean and Adam Dell. A farmer’s life is hard to adapt to, for city folks. Lettie relies on Jean for advice yet resents it and feels humiliated to have to ask. 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.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. 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.