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Letter
This has been the busiest November/ December we have ever had, partly because
Christmas has started so much later this year. Why is this? you may ask, Persephone
readers always being very interested in the less literary aspects of what we
do – turnover, sales, bestsellers. We try and find explanations but a
genuine one, in my view, is that the huge and ever-present concern about global
warming (in Britain this is being the warmest December ever known) has made
people less consumerist, keener to return to the days when Christmas really
did only last for Twelve Days.
As well as Emily, Tillie, Sarah, Jennie, Lisa (and now Joanna) sending out
about two hundred books a day, packing up books for bookshops, answering
the phone,
serving customers in the shop, we have been out and about: we were in Bath
ten days ago for a wonderful Persephone Tea; and then in Cambridge last
Saturday
we had a celebratory lunch for Plats
du Jour, to which Sue and David Gentleman
(who did the wonderful illustrations) and Ashlyn and Miranda Gray (Patience’s
daughter) came. Determined to make the lunch a true 1950s one, we set out for
Cambridge market with three shopping baskets and a copy of the book. At the
fish stall, after some dithering between maquereaux and lapin,
we chose the latter
(£6 for two rabbits, which produced about a dozen pieces); from these
I made lapin au riz au safran (on page 228), using wine, cloves, mace
etc, and
saffron rice (luckily Cambridge market has an incredible spices stall). Patience
Gray suggested ending with a Camembert cheese (easily bought from
the cheese stall) but did not recommend any vegetables, so we had braised fennel
and chicory;
we also had the closest equivalent we could find to some patisserie – a
plum tart from Fitzbillies.
A bottle of white Chianti was unobtainable (does it not exist any more?) but
we had the closest equivalent; in any case, as Miranda reminded us, Patience
was not a prescriptive cook and would have entirely approved of changing the
recipe to suit.
Then on Tuesday we got out the preserving pan for the sixty Persephone readers
who came to the shop to drink mulled wine, buy books at a slightly reduced
price and meet Joanna (by now into her second week of seeing printers, talking
to bookshops,
beginning to make decisions about the Classics); and the shop window is sparkling
with Christmas decorations, we live off croissants from Kennards (thank you,
thank you to the Canadian reader who sometimes sends an extra five pounds
to pay for these!) and mince pies from Konditor
and Cook.
On Sunday I watched the Victoria Wood adaptation of Nella
Last’s War,
a book we had often considered reprinting but had rejected as being, on
the one hand, too similar to our hugely successful Few
Eggs and No Oranges and, on the
other hand, less well written. (It has now been reprinted by Profile Books.)
The adaptation was of course very enjoyable to watch, but it was only based on the book, and that was annoying, for example it started by showing Nella
being
quite depressed (not in the book) and then so many of the people she worked
with at the WVS were seriously horrible (not in the book). It made good television,
although, we couldn’t help thinking, how much better it would have
been to televise Miss
Ranskill comes Home (also about women working with
each other
during the war).
The fall-out from the Rachel Cooke article continues (cf the last Fortnightly
Letter), not that I have had time to look at any blogs, so all I know
about is emails from Persephone readers. I still agree with Rachel Cooke
that
some people
can write, indeed can write about books, and others can’t, and
that most people only want to bother with the first category; but who
defines who can and
can’t write? Some of those bloggers can write, obviously - if one
can find them.
One person who certainly can is Nick Hornby. (No, we do not know him
personally - he does come into the shop but, as with our other celebs,
we are almost
neurotically careful not to take any notice.) My current bedside book
is his The
Complete Polysyllabic
Spree,
his columns for Believer magazine about what he
has been reading. Alas, no Persephone books are mentioned, but I am
patient, and his selection
is incredibly interesting.
Another thing to mention – ‘At Home in Renaissance Italy’,
a marvellous exhibition, very much in the Persephone spirit, at the
Victoria
and Albert Museum.
Finally, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year – and even happier reading. Nicola Beauman
15 December 2006
Lamb’s Conduit Street | 
