No direct reference to politics this month but may we just say that here at Persephone we are feeling more cheerful. And isn’t it delightful that Gwen Walz was born Gwen Whipple?

    So the October books have gone to the printer: PB no. 151 is Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther in its original October 1939 format but also including a new preface by the author’s granddaughter Ysenda Maxtone Graham, some ‘letters’ from Mrs Miniver written in the autumn of 1939, a talk given by Jan Struther about her alter ego Mrs Miniver, and reviews of Mrs Miniver by E M Forster and Rosamond Lehmann. And, advance notice, there will be a party to launch Mrs Miniver on Thursday October 17th at 6, this event is free but please ring the shop to put your name on the list. We shall also show the film of Mrs Miniver on Wednesday October 23rd at 4.30, after the traditional scones and lemon cake at 4, please ring the shop to book a place (tickets are £10). 

    A few days of being under the weather have allowed us to lie in bed, or rather on the day bed (funny how this sounds much more glamorous than mere bed, almost Hollywood). We have even bought a marvellous tray from Granny Gets a Grip

and what with the genius idea of having all meals as bowl food, as though we were at a very chic party, we are really set up for the convalescent schtick. Also we have discovered a new novelist - Anna Quindlen.  Her latest novel After Annie is where we began with her oeuvre, and wow what a beginning! It is the most marvellous book. Has everyone else been reading her for years, in which case why on earth did no one press one of her books into our hands? It’s a mystery. 

    The other book we are reading is the excellent  Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men by Harriet Wistrich, it’s shockingly eye-opening.  

     And during a period of lying on the sofa/day bed, one can hardly call it convalescence, one’s world narrows down a lot but in rather a good way. The Archers on Radio 4 is the highlight of the day (impossible to explain its pulling power to those who don’t listen) and Jane Brocket’s Substack on Sundays is the highlight of the weekend (this week was about gasholders, so clever and so fascinating). Then last night there was an excellent item on Radio 4: 'Mob violence breaks out across the country, with an explosion of hatred directed at minority communities who feel under siege. Jonathan Freedland looks back more than 800 years ago when Britain's small Jewish community was targeted by violent mobs in the wake of the coronation of Richard I.' Jews, Muslims, refugees, the 'other': it seems that the mob is always with us. Which is why so many Persephone novels are on this theme: Farewell, Leicester Square, Manja, The Oppermanns to take just three examples.

   The Dulwich Picture Gallery is gearing up for its Tirzah Garwood exhibition (we are one of the sponsors), she was the subject of the Post last week.

To think that Tirzah died when she was only 42. Edna O'Brien and Kenneth Grange, whom we mourned this month, both died in their nineties.

    And we owe an apology to all the people who wrote after the last Letter and told us that if you are doubtful about freezers you simply don’t understand what it’s like living in the country. Of course we didn’t mean to be negative about country freezers loaded with fruit or runner beans, or essentials indeed, or even city freezers laden with  ready meals (are you listening, Field Doctor? In truth your meals are so delicious we have given up cooking for the foreseeable future), what we meant was something far larger, far more global, in essence what we meant was that if everyone who has a freezer but never used it got rid of it or turned it off, the world would save vast amounts of energy. It’s the unused freezers clogged with months and months of frost, or merely containing one tired packet of fish fingers and some ancient ice cream, that should be dispensed with. 

   Finally, there was a stimulating article in the FT by Janan Ganesh suggesting that we shouldn’t waste time reading new books but should only read what has stood the test of time. ‘Here is a rule: avoid the contemporary. If a novel has worth, it will still have it in a decade or two. If not, the filtering effect of time… will remove the book from consideration by then.’ Of course, although we agree wholeheartedly with Janan (this after all is what Persephone Books is all about) the counter argument has a lot of validity; we are going to write to him to ask if he would like to come and debate the topic some time.

Nicola Beauman,

8 Edgar Buildings,

Bath.