2: The Oldest Paper in the World

15/12/2018 33 min Episodio 2
2: The Oldest Paper in the World

Listen "2: The Oldest Paper in the World"

Episode Synopsis

In Episode 2: The Oldest Paper in the World Gail, Hazel and Jennie talk to Frances Wood, librarian, sinologue and former head of the Chinese Collection at the British Library; Andrew Hawkins recounts the story of the oldest paper in the world; and we find out which books our readers are hoping for this Christmas. www.foxedquarterly.com/pod


Books Mentioned



Ernest H. Shepard illustrated Winnie-the-Pooh and Wind in the Willows. His memoirs are Drawn from Memory and Drawn from Life

A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book

Issue 60 of Slightly Foxed

David Seabrook, All the Devils Are Here

Jonathan Coe, Middle England

Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

Max Hastings, Vietnam

Philip Kerr, Greeks Bearing Gifts

Germain Greer’s White Beech is out of print, but we may be able to get hold of second hand copies. Please get in touch for details

Michael Palin, Erebus: The Story of a Ship

Sebastian Fauks, Paris Echo

BB’s books are Brendon Chase, The Little Grey Men and Down the Bright Stream

Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking with Destiny

Hilary Spurling, Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time

Carys Davies, West

Sally Rooney, Normal People

Rachel Kushner, The Mars Room

Katie Stewart’s Times Cookery Book is out of print, but we may be able to get hold of second hand copies. Please get in touch for details

Julian Barnes, The Pedant in the Kitchen

Nigel Slater, The Christmas Chronicles

Qiu Xiaolong’s Detective Chen series begins with Death of a Red Heroine

Frances Wood, Hand-grenade Practice in Peking




Related Slightly Foxed Articles & Illustrations



Luna North produced the cover for Issue 59 of Slightly Foxed, Autumn 2018

Frances Wood’s article, The Oldest Paper in the World, appeared in Issue 27 of Slightly Foxed, Autumn 2014




Other Links



The Slightly Foxed Readers’ Day 2018 took place on 9 November at the Art Workers’ Guild. Our speakers were:

Miranda Seymour, who talked about Byron's wife and daughter, Annabella Milbanke & Ada Lovelace

Edmond Gordon, whose biography The Invention of Angela Carter won the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2017

Penelope Lively and Ursula Buchan discussed two of their passions; writing and gardening

St Jude’s artists: Angie Lewin, Chloe Cheese and Christopher Brown

Tom Hodgkinson, editor of The Idler magazine

Details on our Writing Competition can be found here

The Diamond Sutra is still available to see in the British Library

Slightly Foxed is printed and bound by Smith Settle

The Birth of a Book video can be seen here




Music and sound effects:


Music for reading from The Oldest Paper in the World is Meditations on Life by Matthew Huffaker, Teknoaxe and made available under Creative Commons 4.0 license (no changes made).


Sound effect of sleigh bells thanks to Gowler Music via FreeSound.org under Creative Commons Attribution Licence 3.0 (no changes made).


The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable