Readers' Comments

From the Persephone Biannually No.10 Autumn and Winter 2011

'The first sentence of Still Missing completely captured me: “You could hardly get to age thirty-four without learning something about loss.” How true. And that feeling of being gripped by loss – here of course the sudden disappearance of a child, which is something I can’t even begin to imagine – stayed with me throughout. There was something in the sheer luminosity of the prose that sucked me right into the scene and kept me there. Beth Gutcheon is a woman very much in charge of her material and intently focused on character. And just as I wondered how much longer the terrible but utterly non-sentimental emotions could be wrung out of the page as we all wait for news of Alex, the plot gathers essential pace and additional tension. The final pages are excellent and it ends at just the right point. Kudos to the author for not giving us an epilogue.’ Vulpes Libris

‘Although The Fortnight in September is not plot driven, the chronicle of the Stevens family’s two-week holiday is wonderfully wrought, with lots of humour and poignancy. Written in 1931, it is a bit of a snapshot social history of a suburban London family barely over the cusp of the middle class; it also has so many more layers to appreciate: brilliantly but quietly quirky and likeable characters, a fascinating look into days long past, and a rather touching exploration of life’s priorities. Even among Persephone fans I think this one deserves more attention.’ Thomas at My Porch

‘Dorothy Whipple builds the picture of family comfort, loyalty and happiness in so stealthily that I was startled by her even-handedness. Her omniscient narrator in Someone at a Distance spends as much time in the consciousness of the French hussy Louise as she does in the baffled masculine inner world of Avery or the sweet cluelessness of Ellen. Result: I don’t know what I’m supposed to make of the story, and I keep turning it over in my head. Should Ellen have been more wary? Were the children spoiled? Can this marriage be saved? Why do we so enjoy reading about nasties like Louise and Mrs. North – to prove that we aren’t like them?’ Book Group of One

‘Florence White was part of a group of people who realised that searching out and recording English folk culture, whether music or storytelling or food, was not about a conservative desire to live in the past, but a way of saving this know-ledge for the future and our next generations. Good Things in England became one of the best sources of English recipes, and an influence on many writers from Jane Grigson to Nigel Slater. The recipes are largely culled from a call to BBC listeners, asking them for old family recipes. These are not the sort of recipes that previously featured in earlier recipe books, since most would not have been considered “grand” enough; the “museum pieces” of English cookery as White calls them. These are mostly hard-working recipes handed down the generations, many part of an oral tradition (and observation) and rarely published.’ Marmaduke Scarlet

‘Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a wonderful piece of escapism. The pace is swift and it races from one ridiculous situation to another. This charming, humorous and exuberant novel is a blend of adventure, romance and unadulterated joy. But although the book is lighthearted, it is not completely frivolous. It is wonderful to see Miss Pettigrew open up and grow in confidence, becoming bolder, funnier, and finally embracing the self she has kept hidden for so many years.’ Blogging for a Good Book

‘What is it about Dorothy Whipple’s books? What seems like a fairly ordinary story on the outside ends up being almost impossible to put down. I’ve read four of her books now and they have all been the same. It’s as if the minute the first page is turned I’m immersed in the world of the characters – it’s perplexing yet wonderful. The heroine of High Wages is Jane, a delightful 19 year old with a buoyant and entreprenurial spirit, committed to making something of her life despite the odds being against her. It is set in a fictional Northern town in England and highlights the massive gap in living conditions between women of different social classes at this time. The contrast between Jane and the women she waits on is marked. It is a reminder of the complete lack of choice and freedom that was available to unmarried women with no family support.’ A Book Sanctuary

‘After Miss Pettigrew, I expected Persephone books to be sweet, charming and domestic in focus with a lively wit and intelligence. However, The Victorian Chaise-longue may, have the expected domestic setting and it’s definitely clever, but goodness me it’s dark! What I expected to be a cosy, pleasant read turned out to be a little slice of nightmare, but nevertheless a stunning book. Melanie (or Milly as she is in 1864) was a very interesting character: when the reader sees her in the 1950’s she seems docile and rather vacuous, the nightmare experience of finding herself in an alien time period is the catalyst which forces her to become independent and so in a peculiar way the reader watches her becoming free even as she is trapped.’ Old English Rose Reads

‘Ruth Holland falls in love with Stuart Williams, a very married Stuart Williams, who is not able to put his marriage back together after a previous dalliance. His wife will not forgive him, shut out from her, he is all the more susceptible to the charm of Ruth. Who likewise is drawn to him. Fidelity follows several stages through which Ruth progresses: a tumultuous passion which cannot be abated; a brief longing to return to her hometown which quickly dies when she feels the scorn of society; the desire to set herself, and her lover, free when she determines their relationship can grow no farther. And so Fidelity bears the question, “To whom are we faithful?” To our spouses? To the protocols of society? To our families? To the lover with whom we’ve aligned? Or, to our own selves?’ Dolce Bellezza

‘I often seem to use the word unputdownable when I review Persephone books. Usually it’s the Dorothy Whipples. I love her characters so much that I stay up late with my eyes propped open to find out what’s going to happen to them. Still Missing is the most involving book I’ve read for ages. I read 150pp in one sitting and barely drew breath. My stomach was clenched the whole time. If I hadn’t had to get up for work next morning, I think I’d have sat up half the night. I read the rest of the book the next night, nothing would have stopped me getting back to it. First published in 1981, the qualities that this book shares with the more typical Persephone book written in the 1920–50s are the readability of the story and the emphasis on the importance of domesticity & the home. Susan’s house is at the centre of the book, it’s her refuge and her prison. It becomes a beacon, a point of familiarity to guide Alex home if he is still alive. It’s the repository of all her memories of Alex. It’s where the story begins and ends. Still Missing is not an easy read but it is a compulsive one. This is one of the most memorable books in the Persephone list.’ I Prefer Reading

‘House-Bound by Winifred Peck was not a Persephone I’d read much about prior to purchasing it. Happily, it proved to be a most delightful, thoughtful, and quietly amusing book. It begins simply with Rose, in need of a few maids and a cook, struck by the revolutionary idea of assuming their work herself in light of the wartime labour shortage. What ‘house-bound’ really comes to mean for her is the emotional rather than physical isolation of the self. The book focuses on the breaking down of those walls that allows Rose to see her family anew, of the revelations about the characters of those closest to her. There is a strong warning through the latter part of the novel that the old conventions, the codes of conduct which required stoicism and the bottling up of emotions, the full laying of the dinner table complete with flowers and useless accoutrements every evening, have no place in the world being shaped by the on-going war. In terms of writing and characterisation, this is a good novel but not a great one. Its greatest virtue must come from its willingness to confront what Peck certainly viewed as her society’s damagingly antisocial conventions of human behaviour, the isolation of the self that leaves so many people to struggle alone just when they need the warmth of human understanding most.’ The Captive Reader

‘Alas, Poor Lady tells the story of one London family from the Victorian era through to the 1930s. Captain and Mrs Scrimgeour have eight children and we watch as they grow up and try to find their place in a society designed to cater only for men and, to a lesser extent, for married women. For a woman who stayed single (whether by choice or not) her options in life were very limited. I loved this book but I know it won’t appeal to everyone. And yet without anything really ‘happening’ there’s still so much going on that for anyone with an interest in feminism and the differing roles of men and women in society, I can’t recommend Alas, Poor Lady highly enough. Although my favourite Persephone so far is still Little Boy Lost this one is now a close second).’ She Reads Novels

‘Miss Ranskill Comes Home is heartwrenching, humorous, and inspiring all at once. The relationships Miss Ranskill forms with people in the book are written quite beautifully and you can appreciate why she becomes attached to them, without Barbara Euphan Todd spelling it out. As a modern reader, you cannot help but sympathise with the emotions that Miss Ranskill is going through. If you were dropped back in time during WWII in England, how would you manage coping with rations, coupons, and blackout? The narrative is great to read, has great pace, and elements I’ve never seen in a war-time story. It was definitely hard to put down this book and I was so sad when I came to the last page. But, the book ended amazing well and has bumped its way up to my favorite Persephone book. I must say, I never thought that Miss Buncle’s Book would be knocked from that position!’ Behind the Curtain

‘Little Boy Lost was a wonderful book. It started out slowly but before I knew it, I couldn’t put the book down. One of the reasons that I wasn’t sure I would like it was because Hilary was such a flawed character. The purpose of his journey was originally to find his son, but also became one in which he had to come to grips with the new, post-war France, at once familiar and completely different from the one he had loved prior to the war. Little Jean, on the other hand, I fell for immediately. Sometimes you come across a character with the saddest, most sincere lines that just grab hold of your heartstrings and won’t let go. It’s not that they want anyone to feel sorry for them, they’re just honestly sharing aspects of their life. Jean was such a character.’ Alita Reads

‘Reuben Sachs, the story of an extended Anglo-Jewish family in London, focuses on the relationship between two cousins, Reuben Sachs and Judith Quixano, and the tensions between their Jewish identities and English society. This is a beautifully crafted little novel. The language is faultless, pared down to only what is necessary, yet at the same time painting an unforgettable picture of Anglo-Jewish life at the end of the 19th century. A world is created in such a way that the people who live in it step right off the page. Reuben Sachs was written (some say) in answer to the highly romanticised portrait of Jewish life created by George Eliot in Daniel Deronda, and therefore caused some criticism at the time.’ Heaven-Ali’s Book Journal

‘Few Eggs and No Oranges is the longest of the Persephone books, being the wartime of diaries of a woman working for a charity in London. It is a faithful, honest and detailed record of what it was really like, and unlike many books of wartime diaries, some of which I have mentioned here, the length and depth really demonstrate the character of the writer as well as just the events. The diary is so realistic, describing things like the mind-numbing exhaustion of dozens of nights when sleep was disturbed. If you are a fan of wartime diaries, or Persephone books, or just an accurate record of an exciting period of history, it represents a very worthwhile investment’ Joulesbarham’s Blog

‘I thought Good Evening, Mrs. Craven was one of the most wonderful book I have read in a while. Mollie Panter-Downes’s stories are not ‘pretty’. In fact, I’d say they’re quite the opposite: they focus on the ‘ugly’ side of the home front, the inner turmoil beneath the calm. Since the book is arranged chronologically, we can see shifts in the dominant emotions expressed as the war goes on, from enthusiasm and earnestness in the earliest stories to hopelessness and fear in the middle, to resolve and exhaustion near the end. The stories hang together because the author chose to focus on small, intimate moments of (mostly) women’s lives, at a time when everything they knew – social roles, class, family – were changing. I don’t read a lot of short stories, and reading Good Evening, Mrs. Craven has reminded me what a mistake that is.’ Col Reads

‘Time travel. Fear. Confusion. Could I be describing the premise of a contemporary novel flying off bookshelves faster than Amazon sales rankings can keep up with? Perhaps. Or, these could be a few words to describe The Victorian Chaise-longue: first published in 1953 and only 99 pages, this tiny book is creepier and more uncomfortable than many Gothic books published today. I sat transfixed in the short time it took to read it. Eerie. Creepy, uncomfortable, descriptive and engaging, Marghanita Laski’s story is one that showcases this author as a brilliant strategist, one who crafts a powerful punch with each unsettling moment, and in the shortest amount of time Without question, this is a classic of monumental significance.’ Coffee and a Book Chick

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