On Sunday evening The Swindonian’s Tom Haynes attended one of the launch events of the Swindon Festival of Literature, which was an evening with wildlife writer Lucy Jones.
The main topic of discussion was her new book ‘Foxes Unearthed: A story of love and loathing in modern Britain’.
Early into proceedings, Lucy describes foxes as a ‘flint for emotions’ which effectively communicates the contention this species has caused over hundreds of years. No animal in the English countryside has caused such debate over the years, with the badger being the only other contender, albeit in more recent times.
Lucy has clearly invested a lot of time and energy into understanding foxes including the symbolism, folklore and science that make up the whole. Her research has taken her around the country in search of leading canine scientist, animal call specialists and historians all to gain a broad understanding of this common visitor to farms and gardens. What Lucy has discovered is a clear divide in how people feel about foxes; people seem to love them or hate them. Lucy managed to give fair consideration to both camps in her talk, discussing the reasons why farmers find them a nuisance and equally why so many members of the public supported the ban on fox hunting back in 2005.
Lucy is certainly a hive of vulpine information. One of the most surprising facts to me related to fox population fluctuations, which can see the UK population broadly fluctuate by almost 50%! That is a staggering amount. It was also sad to hear how many foxes don’t live beyond 18 months, despite their natural life span being in the region of 9 years, car collisions are one of the main factors of premature death in these modern times.
The audience had plenty of questions to ask Lucy with discussions ranging from the unsettling calls made by vixens, foxy smells and how the media influences the public’s attitude towards foxes.
At the end of the talk, I had the opportunity to speak to Lucy while she was busy signing books for attendees of the event (including mine) she spoke about how she found her first talk at the Swindon Festival of Literature:
‘This is my first book and my first event, and I didn’t know what to expect and it’s been such a joy, and I loved everyone’s questions.’
Lucy spoke about where the idea for a book all about foxes came from:
‘I’ve always been interested in foxes and I was approached by the publisher who was interested in foxes too and the idea came through that meeting.’
Beyond writing about foxes, Lucy also writes about various other nature subjects:
‘In the last year I’ve written about 17-year cicada (an insect), parasites, sharks, the evolution of evil and all sorts of things’
Lucy also runs her own blog called Wildlife Daily and writes for various wildlife magazines including BBC Earth and BBC Wildlife.
‘Foxes Unearthed: A story of love and loathing in modern Britain’ goes on general this month and can be ordered from your local book shop.
