From The Persephone Quarterly Summer 2004 No. 22

‘The Home-Maker is one of the most extraordinary books I’ve read. It's rightly seen as a plea for the rights of children but it’s also a plea for the inner life – Lester’s life, however mundane, is a constant meditation. Each chapter is written from a different individual’s viewpoint so that the reader ends up with a kaleidoscope of images of each relationship in the book. How explosive it must have been when it first appeared – how fresh and challenging it still seems.’  DT, London EC1 [In fact six years ago Persephone asked the late and highly respected American academic Carolyn Heilbrun to write a preface to The Home-Maker; she refused saying she could not admire it because each chapter was written from a different individual's viewpoint and this destroyed its claim to literature...]

‘My Persephone library is now extensive: the absence of Manja was largely due to my insularity. But I consider it outstanding, not only as a story but as a close-up of recent history. A woman of deep emotion, the author's skill at translating it into words is remarkable. I vote this high among your “rescues”. And not many books can be described as ‘enchanting’ but Oriel Malet’s Marjory Fleming goes further – it is absolutely enchanting.’  AF, Pangbourne

‘The stories in The Casino are so perceptive and witty, and some of her metaphors and similes are extraordinary eg “the water in each hollow, fringed with brown weed, was clear as gin”’ HG, London W4

‘The New House is like my favourite Persephone books in the attention to character and atmosphere and the fact that it’s a good story; most are fiction, I think, except Few Eggs which reads like a novel anyway because Vere Hodgson is so marvellous.’ LB, Victoria, Australia

‘I found Hostages to Fortune particularly poignant and thought it was a marvellously well-delineated study of family relationships and was also beautifully written.’ TW, Mansfield

‘I came across The Runaway by chance in a bookshop and felt compelled to write and tell you that it is a very long time since a book gave me so much pleasure.  I love everything about it from the sturdy cover, beautiful endpapers and matching bookmark (and spine that doesn't fall apart as you read) to the lively story about Clarice and Olga, and the remarkable wood-engravings and design by Gwen Raverat – this book is indeed a small work of art, as Frances Spalding says in her Afterword.’ JS London, SW19

‘I had an email from my sister, to whom I had given The Making of a Marchioness, saying she was “heartbroken” that she’d finished it and that she “loved every last word” of it.’  JAS, London WC2

‘At a certain age you think that you've probably discovered all the writers that make you want to jump for joy – and then, thanks to Persephone Books, you discover someone like Elizabeth Berridge. I was staggered to read her beautifully-written stories, all faintly sinister, but so wonderfully crafted. And I'm a real fuss-pot about books, too... if they don’t completely entrance me after the first five pages, I can’t go on.’ VI, London W12

‘I read The Priory at such speed because I was enjoying it so much that I will have to read it again.  I treasure all your books, except for Marjory Fleming, where I could not get past the third chapter. I gave it to my sister-in-law who RAVED about it. Just goes to show.’ JH, Ebbw Vale

‘Few Eggs and No Oranges is a wonderful read. Vere Hodgson is a special woman indeed, totally unaware of her gift of grace.’ CR, Southampton