'A more general British taste...extends from Cath Kidston to Persephone Books...' wrote Ian Jack in the Guardian in an article about – cupcakes. He commented that '"retro-chic" is often given as a key element of their appeal'; quoted Dr Gavin Smith's comment that 'it's about mixing the old with the new – the nostalgic and the contemporary ... It could be about the legacy of heritage'; and went on to describe 'a more general British taste, mainly English and mainly feminine, for the domestic fashions of the 1940s and 1950s. It extends from Cath Kidston stores to Persephone Books' beautiful new editions of novels by neglected women writers, and you can literally eat and drink it in the small revival of teashops [in which] pieces of Poole Pottery and old sofas are artfully arranged for sale and Ordnance Survey maps are scattered ... over the kind of three-mirror dressing table that Celia Johnson might have used to primp her hair.'
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