Reading in company. It’s always more fun, isn’t it? Not that a stack of Persephones and a stack of lemon cakes aren’t enjoyable in and of themselves. But there’s something about knowing that there are similar stacks of books and stacks of sweets at hand for other readers. That, just
Isobel English’s Every Eye (1956) Persephone Number 18 Persephone Books, 2000 Cynthia has died. We learn that in the first sentence of Every Eye. From Hatty. Who is telling her story from the perspective of her middle years. Hatty is freshly married and Cynthia has freshly died. Both events have
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
