Persephone Books have shrunk their lovely Persephone Biannually publication to this little Persephone Pamphlet - much smaller, fewer articles and no coloured pictures. They don't actually say so but it's obviously to save money - especially on postage. As it's still free I won't complain but the pictures in the Biannually were always handy for the scrapbook.
Persephone Books publish books, just 3 or 4 a year, that have been forgotten, usually by women writers. I've enjoyed several of their books and have a small collection of favourites but two they've re-published recently are books I've already read.
I owned a copy like this one below for many years - The Waters Under The Earth by John Moore, but it went in one of the house moves.
I can't remember anything about it now and wouldn't mind re-reading so I suggested the library buy a copy and they did. I was able to be first to reserve and it will be on the library van for me this month.
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther is Persephone's most recent re-print (number 151) and I own a Virago Modern Classic copy from 1989, which is still available second-hand for pennies, so I'm not sure why Persephone chose this to reprint. The original started as columns in The Times in 1937 recounting the everyday events of a fictional middle class family.
It was turned into a film during WWII and became popular on both sides of the Atlantic with Winston Churchill saying it had been very good for the Allied cause.
Jan Struther was the pen-name of Joyce Maxtone Graham and her Granddaughter Ysender Maxtone Graham is also an author - of non-fiction books. I read one of her books (British Summer Time Begins) recently in the summer bit of my Reading The Seasons 'challenge'.
Before going to the second-hand book sale on Saturday it was over a year since I'd found a Persephone anywhere but then I spotted this lurking at the back of the gardening books and picked it up quickly for £1.
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Sue
I never knew Mrs. Miniver came from a book. I loved that film!
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