Letter

Just after I wrote the last Fortnightly Letter I ‘shuttled’ from England to America and spent ten days in New York. Emily and I had sent out letters to our East Coast readers and we were delighted that sixty of them were able to come to a Persephone Tea in an Episcopalian church hall on Madison Avenue. We served tea (in paper cups from Dean & Deluca, because it was their grey with white lettering that inspired our colour scheme nine years ago), scones with cream and jam (very English) and brownies (very American); I talked, about Persephone Books in general and Anne Sebba talked about Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Shuttle; and we tried to ensure that people met each other, exchanged addresses and, we hoped, started to plan a Persephone reading group in New York. (The next London reading group, by the way, is this Wednesday, May 2nd, from 6.30-8 in the shop, and the book under discussion is EM Delafield’s Consequences; everyone is welcome, although please telephone first if you would like to come.)

The Making of a Marchioness, our other book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, was broadcast on Radio 4 at the beginning of April in Michelene Wandor’s hugely enjoyable two-part dramatisation. Whether it was the (coincidental) timing, or whether it was because the Persephone Biannually went out a month later than the Quarterly had done, or for some other reason, when I returned to England the orders have been pouring in – to such an extent that we have not been able to despatch the books within a couple of days as we normally aim to do.

However, while I airily went away for the weekend, I ensured that Emily was chained to her desk most of Saturday and the backlog has now been cleared; many apologies if you have not received your books as quickly as you would have liked. And if by any chance you are reading this but have not received your Biannually, do send us an email and we will mail out another.

Last week the Guardian was giving away a series of pamphlets called ‘Great Speeches of the Twentieth Century’. This includes Mandela’s speech at the Rivonia Trial on 20th April 1964, which is part of the climax of The World that was Ours by Hilda Bernstein, Persephone Book No. 50; when we were doing the editing we went to the British Library and sat in a little booth listening to the recording of the speech and making small corrections to Hilda’s original text.

Those of you who live in Norfolk: do try and see the exhibition at the Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery which runs until June 17th – it is called ‘From Victorian to Modern: Innovation and Tradition in the work of Vanessa Bell, Gwen John and Laura Knight’. It is full of delightful pictures, which are cleverly linked.

Laura Knight The Cornish Coast (1914-17) National Museum Wales © Estate of Dame Laura Knight/DACS, London 2007		Vanessa Bell Iceland Poppies c1908-09 On loan to The Charleston Trust

In the next Fortnightly Letter, and if all goes according to plan, Emily will be writing about our visit to Ealing Studios to watch the filming of Miss Pettigrew. We have just reprinted Miss P, as we refer to her fondly in the shop, but realise we will ‘have’ to reprint again soon. Ah, the travails of a small publisher!

Nicola Beauman
30 April 2007
Lamb’s Conduit Street