My Favourite Persephone Books

I’m sure Persephone Books needs no introduction from me, but just in case you’re not familiar with this publisher, they reprint forgotten gems that have fallen out of print – mostly titles by women writers and mostly from the mid-twentieth century. (Around 10 books on the list were written by men, e.g. Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper and The Fortnight in September by R. C. Sherriff of Journey’s End fame.) The business was set up by Nicola Beauman in 1999 to give a new lease of life to books she considered unjustly neglected at the time – an objective that remains a guiding principle to this day. Alongside novels, Persephone also publish short stories, diaries, memoirs, poetry and a few cookery books that fit the company’s ethos.

Each Persephone book looks and feels beautiful. The books are printed on high-quality, acid-free paper and bound in distinctive grey jackets with patterned endpapers specifically chosen to match the original year of publication. Some of the most popular Persephone Books have also been reissued as Persephone Classics – bookshop-friendlyeditions with full-colour pictures on the front to ensure they catch the eye when displayed.

Now, 25 years on, Persephone Books have a thriving list of 150 titles with more releases planned for the years ahead. To celebrate their 25^th anniversary, Beauman and her team held a 3-day festival in Bath at the end of April, featuring a range of events at their bookshop and other venues across the city. Sadly, I didn’t attend in person, but judging by the sessions I listened to online, the festival was a huge success, with several events selling out remarkably quickly. (Tickets for the Wild for Whipple discussion disappeared within 2 or 3 minutes!) In addition to the focus on Dorothy Whipple, there were lots of fascinating talks about favourite Persephone Books, the rise of heritage publishing in general and deep dives into subjects such as single women, working women and history through the Persephone pages.

To mark this anniversary, I thought it might be fun to highlight some of my own favourite Persephone Books with a paragraph or two about each one. These books have given me so much pleasure over the years, and I’m indebted to Persephone for reissuing them – otherwise, I might never have had the chance to read them. Hopefully, you’ll recognise some of your own favourites here, but please feel free to mention others in the comments; I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes

A wonderful collection of stories featuring ordinary British people – mostly women – trying to cope with the day-to-day realities of life on the Home Front during WW2. Here we find women trying to accommodate evacuees from the city, making pyjamas for soldiers overseas, or doing their best to maintain some degree of normality around the home in the face of constrained resources. Panter-Downes’ style – understated, perceptive and minutely observed – makes for a subtly powerful effect. She is particularly adept at capturing the range of emotions experienced by her characters, from loneliness and longing to fear and self-pity. I’ve also got MP-D’s London War Notes in my TBR and hope to get to it soon.

The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff

One of around ten male authors published by Persephone, R. C. Sherriff fits the company’s philosophy perfectly. During a trip to Bognor in the early 1930s, Sherriff was inspired to create a story centred on a fictional family by imagining their lives and, most importantly, their annual September holiday at the seaside resort. While this premise seems simple on the surface, the novel’s apparent simplicity is a key part of its magic. Here we have a story of small pleasures and triumphs, of quiet hopes and ambitions, of secret worries and fears – the illuminating moments in day-to-day life. By focusing on the minutiae of the everyday, Sheriff has crafted something remarkable here – a novel that feels humane, compassionate and deeply affecting, where the reader can fully invest in the characters’ inner lives. This is a gem of a book, as charming and unassuming as one could hope for, a throwback perhaps to simpler, more modest times.

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple

This was my first experience of Dorothy Whipple’s fiction, and thankfully it didn’t disappoint. Someone at a Distance is a compelling novel about the fragile nature of love and the lives we build for ourselves. The central story is timeless, focusing on the systematic destruction of a loving marriage by a venomous interloper in the Garden of Eden. Whipple knows just how to hold the reader’s attention, pushing them forward to learn how the narrative will end. While her prose might not be as literary as other women writers from this period (e.g. Elizabeth Taylor and Elizabeth Jenkins), she remains a consummate storyteller. One to sink into when you’re in the mood for an absorbing page-turner.

Vain Shadow by Jane Hervey

A sharply-observed portrait of a wealthy English family at a time of mourning, this 1963 novel is something of an underrated gem. The narrative arc is a relatively straightforward one; that said, it is not without its small moments of drama. In essence, the Winthorpes gather together at their Derbyshire country estate following the death of the Colonel – the head of the family – from an unspecified but not unexpected illness. Over the four days that follow, the Winthorpes work through the ramifications of the Colonel’s passing, make arrangements for his funeral and debate the contents of his will. In short, it’s a darkly comic insight into dysfunctional family dynamics at a time of heightened stress – there is much jostling for position and saving face going on here. As a novel, it also has some interesting things to say about how women’s lives were often controlled by the men of the family back in the 1950s – the bullying husbands and disapproving elders seeking to put women in their place and restrict their enjoyment of life.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

This was my first Persephone, and it remains a favourite. Set in London in the 1930s, Watson’s delightful book captures an extraordinary day in the life of Miss Guinevere Pettigrew, a rather timid, down-at-heel spinster who has fallen on hard times.  As the novel opens, Miss Pettigrew urgently needs a new job as a governess or a children’s nanny. If she doesn’t secure a new position that day, Miss Pettigrew may well find herself with nowhere to go but the poorhouse, as her landlady has threatened her with eviction. What happens next is, in effect, an utterly enchanting take on the Cinderella story as Miss Pettigrew finds herself drawn into a new world, a place of adventure, excitement and new experiences. This is a charming novel, full of warmth, wit and a certain joie de vivre. One to read or revisit if you need a lift.

The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marganhita Laski 

This is a difficult book to say very much about without revealing key elements of the premise; so, if you’re thinking of reading it and would prefer to know as little as possible before going in, look away now. What I will say upfront is that the experience of reading this novella feels somewhat akin to being trapped in a terrifying COVID fever dream from times past. (I read it during the 2021 lockdown, which felt remarkably apt!)

The premise of this chilling story is simple but highly effective. In the early 1950s, Melanie, a young mother recovering from tuberculosis, falls asleep, only to wake up in the body of her alter ego, Milly, some ninety years earlier. As Melanie realises that she is trapped, effectively imprisoned in the body of a dying woman, she begins to doubt various ‘truths’ about her existence – more specifically, her identity, her sanity, and perhaps most troubling of all, her ability to return to the life she once knew. This remarkably unnerving story relies on our fears of entrapment – a feeling augmented by the loss of personal agency and any grip on reality – for its power. Laski perfectly captures the terror of feeling helpless and imprisoned when everything we previously believed about our existence is destabilised and undermined. A psychologically disturbing read for a dark winter’s night.

The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

For a novel first published in 1924, The Home-Maker feels surprisingly progressive, challenging as it does the traditional gender-based roles assigned to a husband and wife for a harmonious marriage. Set in small-town America in the 1920s, this thoughtful, immersive book explores the proposition that, in some instances, the man of the house is better placed than his wife to raise the children, while she in turn has the requisite skills to be the primary breadwinner. A radical concept at the time! And while society has changed significantly since the novel first appeared, the core principles Canfield Fisher explores here still feel highly relevant today. She was clearly a radical thinker, encouraging her readers to consider new ways to live, developing tailored solutions to suit their personal circumstances. It’s a beautiful, comforting novel, full of wisdom and intelligence – reminiscent of The Fortnight in September in content, tone and feel.