When London-based single mother Jane Shilling finds herself with a couple of weeks unexpectedly free and no chance of going away, she decides to pursue a childhood ambition and learn to ride. So began her odd, late-blooming affair with foxhunting: a passion that was to take her back to the scenes of her childhood and transform her life in ways that were unexpected, often enchanting, and frequently uncomfortable.

The Fox in the Cupboard is the vivid account of the hidden, beautiful, and frequently comic world of horses and hunting, and the extraordinary characters the author met...