Ox-Tales refers to four anthologies of short stories written by 38 of the UK's best-known authors. All donated their stories to

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...

. The books and stories are loosely based on the four elements: Earth, Fire, Air and Water. The Ox-Tales books were published in partnership with Green ProfileGreen Profile
to raise revenue for

projects tackling

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...

around the world. Oxfam receives a percentage of the cover price of each book sold (£3.50 per book if bought directly from an Oxfam shop or Oxfam's website and 50p if the books are purchased through other retailers).

Themes

The themes of the collections are intended to represent four aspects of

's work: * Earth — land rights and farming * Air — combating climate change * Fire — campaigning for arms control * Water — safe water and sanitation Each book contains a poem by

Vikram Seth Vikram Seth (born 20 June 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has won several awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crosswor ...

and an afterword written by Oxfam, detailing their work in that area.

Authors

38 British and Irish based authors contributed to this project. Earth:

Rose Tremain Dame Rose Tremain (born 2 August 1943) is an English novelist, short story writer, and former Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. Life Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on 2 August 1943 in London to Viola Mabel Thomson and ...

Jonathan Coe Jonathan Coe (; born 19 August 1961) is an English novelist and writer. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, '' What a ...

Marti Leimbach Marti Leimbach (born July 16, 1963) is an American fiction writer. Her first novel, ''Dying Young'' (1990), was an international bestseller and the basis of the film, ''Dying Young'', starring Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott, David Selby and Vincen ...

Kate Atkinson Kate Atkinson may refer to: * Kate Atkinson (actress) (born 1972), Australian actress * Kate Atkinson (writer) Kate Atkinson (born 20 December 1951) is an English writer of novels, plays and short stories. She is known for creating the Jac ...

Ian Rankin Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Early life Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a sch ...

Marina Lewycka Marina Lewycka ( ; born 12 October 1946) is a British novelist of Ukrainian origin. Early life Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Kiel after World War II. Her family subsequently moved to England; she now lives in Sheffield, South Yorksh ...

Hanif Kureishi Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist of South Asian and English descent. In 2008, ''The Times'' included Kureishi in its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Early l ...

Jonathan Buckley Jonathan Buckley (born 1 January 1992) is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician who has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Upper Bann since 2017. Early life Buckley grew up outside Portadown Portadown () is ...

Nicholas Shakespeare Nicholas William Richmond Shakespeare FRSL (born 3 March 1957) is a British novelist and biographer, described by the ''Wall Street Journal'' as "one of the best English novelists of our time". Biography Born in Worcester, England to diplomat ...

. Air:

Alexander McCall Smith Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and ...

, Helen Simpson,

DBC Pierre Peter Warren Finlay (born in 1961), also known as DBC Pierre, is an Australian author who wrote the novel '' Vernon God Little''. Pierre was born in South Australia, and largely raised in Mexico. He has resided in the Republic of Ireland and ...

, AL Kennedy,

Kamila Shamsie Kamila Shamsie FRSL (born 13 August 1973) is a Pakistani and British writer and novelist who is best known for her award-winning novel '' Home Fire'' (2017). Named on ''Granta'' magazine's list of 20 best young British writers, Shamsie has be ...

, Beryl Bainbridge,

Louise Welsh Louise Welsh (born 1 February 1965 in London) is an English-born author of short stories and psychological thrillers, resident in Glasgow, Scotland. She has also written three plays, an opera, edited volumes of prose and poetry, and contributed ...

Diran Adebayo Oludiran "Diran" Adebayo FRSL (born 30 August 1968) is a British novelist, cultural critic and academic, best known for his tales of London and the lives of African diasporans. His work has been characterised by its interest in multiple cultura ...

Helen Fielding Helen Fielding (born 19 February 1958) is an English novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones, and a sequence of novels and films beginning with the life of a thirty something singleton in Lo ...

. Water:

Esther Freud Esther Freud (born 2 May 1963) is a British novelist. Early life and training Born in London, Freud is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and painter Lucian Freud. She is also a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and niece of Clement Freud. ...

, David Park,

Hari Kunzru Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru (born 1969) is a British novelist and journalist. He is the author of the novels '' The Impressionist'', '' Transmission'', ''My Revolutions'', '' Gods Without Men'', ''White Tears''David Robinson"Interview: Hari Kunzru, ...

Zoë Heller Zoë Kate Hinde Heller (born 7 July 1965) is an English journalist and novelist long resident in New York City. She has published three novels, ''Everything You Know'' (1999), '' Notes on a Scandal'' (2003), and '' The Believers'' (2008). ''Notes ...

Michel Faber Michel Faber (born 13 April 1960) is a Dutch-born writer of English-language fiction, including his 2002 novel ''The Crimson Petal and the White''. His latest book is a novel for young adults, ''D—A Tale of Two Worlds, D: A Tale of Two Worlds'' ...

, William Boyd,

Giles Foden Giles Foden (born 11 January 1967)George Stade and Karen Karbiener (eds), ''Encyclopaedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present'', 2nd edn, Infobase Publishing, 2010, p. 176. is an English author, best known for his novel ''The Last King of S ...

Joanna Trollope Joanna Trollope (; born 9 December 1943) is an English writer. She has also written under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Her novel ''Parson Harding's Daughter'' won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Asso ...

Michael Morpurgo Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo ('' né'' Bridge; 5 October 1943) is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as ''War Horse'' (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytell ...

. Fire:

Mark Haddon Mark Haddon (born 28 October 1962) is an English novelist, best known for '' The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'' (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth W ...

Geoff Dyer Geoff Dyer (born 5 June 1958) is an English author. He has written a number of novels and non-fiction books, some of which have won literary awards. Personal background Dyer was born and raised in Cheltenham, England, as the only child of a ...

Victoria Hislop Victoria Hislop (née Hamson; born 1959) is an English author. Early life Born in Bromley, Kent, she was raised in Tonbridge and attended Tonbridge Grammar School. She studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and worked in publishing and ...

Sebastian Faulks Sebastian Charles Faulks (born 20 April 1953) is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – ''The Girl at the Lion d'Or'', '' Birdsong'' and '' Charlotte Gray''. He has also pub ...

John Le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

Xiaolu Guo Xiaolu Guo FRSL () born 20 November 1973) is a Chinese-born British novelist, memoirist and film-maker, who explores migration, alienation, memory, personal journeys, feminism, translation and transnational identities. Guo has directed a do ...

William Sutcliffe William Sutcliffe (born 9 March 1971) is a British novelist. He has written many acclaimed novels, spanning genres from satire to YA fiction. His 2008 book ''Whatever Makes You Happy'' has been adapted into a 2019 film by Netflix, under the tit ...

Ali Smith Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting". Early life and education Smith was born in Inverness on 24 Au ...

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver (born Margaret Ann Shriver; May 18, 1957) is an American author and journalist who lives in the United Kingdom. Her novel '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005. Early life and education Shriver ...

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender pola ...

Publication details

Ox-Tales were published by Green Profile (a section of

Profile Books Profile Books is a British independent book publishing firm founded in 1996. It publishes non-fiction subjects including history, biography, memoir, politics, current affairs, travel and popular science. Profile Books is distributed in the UK ...

) on 2 July 2009. They were originally published to mark the start of Oxfam's first annual book festival - "Bookfest" (4–18 July 2009).

Reception

In Autumn 2009, the

National Association for the Teaching of English The National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) is a UK association mandated to support effective English language teaching skills and to give teachers a voice at a national level. Structure NATE has several committees and standin ...

(NATE) recommended Ox-Tales to its readers as "enjoyable, thought-provoking reading for you and also for older students — well worth a place in the secondary school stock cupboard for KS4 of KS5."Talking Books — Oxfam's Books Blog
/ref> NATE reprinted

's story "The Importance of Having Warm Feet" from the ''Ox-Tales: Earth'' collection in the October 2009 edition of their magazine, ''Classroom''.''Classroom'' magazine
Issue #9, October 2009.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

William Skidelsky, "Charity aids the art of storytelling"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 14 June 2009.
The Times Online review

''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 3 July 2009.
Katy Guest, "Ox-Tales: Earth, Air, Fire and Water, various authors" (review)
''

Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 5 July 2009.
Sam Leith, "Telling tales" (review)
''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'', 1 July 2009. Oxfam Fiction anthologies 2009 anthologies 2009 in the United Kingdom British anthologies