In this third volume devoted to the adventures of a Sussex farm-boy and his tame vulpine companion, David and Foxy become involved in an effort to thwart the local landowner's badger hunt. Now an accepted part of village life in Woodmere, David, who was once a new-come orphan at Great Wood Farm, has many friends, from Charlie the butcher's boy, to Sue the spaniel lover. But no friend is closer to him than his fox, whom he has raised from a cub. His horror at fox hunting, poignantly captured in Foxy, is extended here to other forms of hunting. When he learns that the Whiteways, a wealthy London couple who own or rent much of the land around Woodmere, and come to the country on the weekend to shoot the wildlife, are going to dig out the badger set in nearby Brock Wood, he enlists his friends in a plan to stop them...

Originally published in 1968, and then reprinted in this paperback edition in 1971, Foxy and the Badgers is arguably the weakest of John Montgomery's three books devoted to the story of David and Foxy. Unlike its two predecessors, the novel Foxy (1959) and the short-story collection My Friend Foxy (1961), which were both narrated in the third person, this tale is narrated by David himself, in the first person. Although the result is a fairly engaging read, somehow it lacks something of the poignancy and humour of the first two volumes. It also feels just a little bit preachy, as David expounds upon the evils of hunting for sport, and considers the uneven contest which pits "men and dogs and spades against a few scared, almost helpless creatures trapped in their underground homes with no possible way of escaping." Although in agreement with the idea that badger baiting (or any other blood 'sport') is barbaric, I felt this ground was covered more effectively in Foxy, perhaps because the reader is shown the horror of the hunt, rather than being treated to a discussion of it. I felt, moreover, that despite the title, there simply wasn't enough of Foxy in this book. Still, I don't want to overstate. The story presented is engaging, and involves the reader in the children's struggle to foil the would-be baiters. Given the recent resurgence of the practice of badger-baiting in the UK, the story couldn't be more topical, despite first being published almost fifty years ago. Recommended to anyone who has read the first two Foxy books, and to readers interested in issues of hunting and wildlife as presented in children's fiction. ( )