Letter

On the last evening of a very busy week, the last week before Christmas, we took in the sign-board, drew the blinds, opened a bottle of champagne and drank a toast – to ourselves and to Persephone readers; then we departed into the night, Nicola to North London by tube, Joanna to Hammersmith by bicycle and Emily to Dulwich by bus. And we did not reassemble until all the carol-singing and Scrabble, goose and red cabbage, presents and country walks, that are the essential part of an English Christmas were over for another year. Then, on the last Friday of 2006, Joanna and I filled three mail-bags with the (mostly American) internet orders that had come in over Christmas. And tomorrow is the first working day of 2007.

Apart from the usual Christmas things what have we been doing? We have been getting House Bound and The Shuttle ready for the printer. We are (still) thinking about the design of the Persephone Classics, and of the Persephone Biannually. And we have listened to the radio, last week to Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing superbly done on Radio 4, and watched television - last night a programme about the 1960s television cook Fanny Cradock on BBC2 and tonight a programme about the Archers on BBC4. But it has been another series about the everyday life of an ordinary family that we have enjoyed most: I cannot recommend the dvd of Heimat highly enough; the website describes it as: ‘one of Germany's most famous cultural exports - a television series following a group of characters from the end of World War I to the present day. The first series was shown on BBC 2 in 1986 and during the channel's 40th anniversary it was chosen as one of the forty best ever shown on BBC2. Stretching to three series and lasting more than 40 hours, Heimat is a project of epic proportions.’ We love it because it is about twentieth century family life, yet set in a social context, and is most intelligently and beautifully written and shot.

Finally: those who have been waiting will be pleased to know that Etty Hillesum’s An Interrupted Life and Emma Smith The Far Cry are being reprinted at the end of this week and should be in the shop by January 12th. (And we recommend a visit to the Etty Hillesum website); I hope some of you will be able to come to The Home-Maker Book Group at the shop from 6.30-8 on the 10th January; and this coming Thursday do try and listen to a programme about Pamela Brown’s The Swish of the Curtain. The R4 programme has been written by Anne Harvey (author of two Persephone prefaces) and on it, to quote the R4 website, ‘she investigates the astonishing story behind Pamela Brown's 1940s tale of stage-struck children who start their own theatre company. Victoria Wood, Eileen Atkins, Jacqueline Wilson and David Bellamy explain how they were influenced by the book.’

It is a good feeling to think of all the people who have been given Persephone books for Christmas and are discovering ‘our’ writers for the first time. Here is Katherine Mansfield at the beginning of a new year: January 1st 1915. ‘What a vile little diary! But I am determined to keep it this year. We saw the Old Year out and the New Year in. A lovely night, blue and gold. The church bells were ringing. I went into the garden and opened the gate and nearly – just walked away. J stood at the window mashing an orange in a cup. The shadow of the rose-tree la on the grass like a tiny bouquet.’ (But how does one mash an orange?)

Nicola Beauman
30 December 2006
Lamb’s Conduit Street