Monica Dickens' Mariana Penguin, 1961 (1940); Persephone Books, 1999 Persephone No. 2 Monica Dickens is an author I thought of as a children's author first; I read her World's End books and Follyfoot stories as a girl, repeatedly. Not as compulsively as I read and re-read other stories, and I
Cicely Hamilton's William: An Englishman Persephone No. 1 (1919) Persephone Books, 1999 When I finish my current Persephone read, Monica Dickens' Mariana, I'll have read one-fifth of their books, but it was the announcement of their Forum's launch that took me to the first of their publications. My orderly nature
Duff Cooper's Operation Heartbreak Persephone No. 51 (1950) When it comes to articulating how I choose the Persephones that I read, I tend to think that it's simultaneously an exhaustive and amorphous plan: I want to read all-things-Persephone, s-o-m-e-d-a-y. But, in fact, I do have an unspoken ranking system and
Etty Hillesum's An Interrupted Life: 1941-1943 Persephone No. 4 (1999) One of the reasons that Etty Hillesum's diaries touched me so deeply is the way in which she openly struggles with the persecution that she is facing. Whether looking for a distraction from the blatant threats posed to her very
Etty Hillesum's An Interrupted Life: 1941-1943 Persephone No. 4 (1999) Of the three personal accounts that I read for Persephone Reading Week, In Wartime, An Interrupted Life, Etty Hillesum's diary, was the one that struck me most soundly. Partly, perhaps, because she does not survive the war, so what a
