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Original poster

Collecting Persephone Books

29 replies

LadyTakingTea · 22/05/2026 21:44

Does anyone collect these? I have 29 of them now. I haven't read them all yet.

What is your favourite and which one was disappointing?

I liked all the Dorothy Whipple books, The Hopkins Manuscript, Last Fortnight in September, Greengates, The Crooked Cross, Family Roundabout, The Victorian Chaise Longue and Harriet.

I was disappointed with National Provincial and I'm probably the only person alive who doesn't love, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

I'm about to start, The Prisoner-the follow up to The Crooked Cross

OP posts:
Jaffapaffa · 22/05/2026 23:46

I try and get second hand versions - more fun than just ordering from the website

EasilyPleased · 22/05/2026 23:45

Well, they’re all by very different writers, so it’s a bit mad to think you’ll like them all equally, surely? I mean, they’re reissued books as different as Virginia Woolf’s daft but likeable Flush and Etty Hillesum’s diaries (she died in Auschwitz).

I think my single favourite novel of theirs that I’ve read is Nora Hoult’s There Were No Windows, also Enid Bagnold’s The Squire, and any of the Katherine Mansfields.

NoCommentingFromNowOn · 22/05/2026 23:22

The Prisoner is on BBC Sounds at the moment.

Not a great addition to your post, but thought I’d mention it anyway!

DiggoryVenn · 22/05/2026 21:55

They are lovely books. I have just finished Mariana by Monica Dickens and also loved Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laska.
Do you buy them new or second hand?