Reading list The fox

FOX BY JIM CRUMLEY (SARABAND, £10)

A slender volume at a smidge over 60 pages, yet this spellbinding book – part of Scottish nature writer Jim Crumley’s Encounters In The Wild series – packs in so much detail and beautiful imagery that you feel far from short-changed.

One memorable section finds Crumley on Ben Ledi in January. A bright and cold winter’s day. A face watching him from high among the frozen landscapes. “It was the colour of autumn and snow,” he writes. “Its eyes were smouldery gold.”

Later, he stumbles across a different fox, sleeping on the mountainside. Crumley watches – almost within touching distance – as it slumbers atop a cushion of heather, snow falling lightly on its fur. A rare and magical encounter.

THE WILD LIFE OF THE FOX BY JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL (DOUBLEDAY, £9.99)

We’re big fans (and repeat readers) of The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel and this is another gem. The Wild Life Of The Fox chronicles a complicated relationship, one where the author professes to be mesmerised by its magnificence, yet loathes it for killing his chickens (Lewis-Stempel is a farmer).

The fox is an apex predator, described in the book as a “beautiful and clever killer”, one that can chill with its high-pitched scream or charm when young cubs tumble and play. A stark and honest account of a tricky co-existence between man and beast.

Fun fact: The geography and ecology of a fox’s territory heavily influence its diet. Seaside foxes may subsist on crabs, fenland foxes on frogs.

FANTASTIC MR FOX BY ROALD DAHL (PUFFIN, £9.99)

Could this be considered the fox’s perspective? First published in 1970, Fantastic Mr Fox is a children’s tale of derring-do and ingenuity that has captured the imagination of generations.

Each night, Mr Fox stealthily steals livestock from the mean and dim-witted farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, to feed his family. Determined to catch him, the trio lay siege to Mr Fox’s den.

This traps all the other underground animals – badgers, moles, rabbits and weasels – in their burrows too, and they begin to starve.

Mr Fox hatches a cunning plan to tunnel into a storehouse to secure a feast and save the day. A cheering story about community and hope.