Persephone Festival in Bath next week

[highlandcoo]

I'm looking forward to this - I'm going on a group walk where we talk about Saplings plus a discussion about High Wages, among other events.

I know our tickets give us access to the tea-room at the Assembly Rooms, but any other recommendations of where to go would be very welcome 😊

Is anyone else going?

This sounds marvellous. I was in Bath for the first time in decades recently - and found it hard to drag myself out of the Persephone shop. Would be gorgeous to attend dedicated discussions on some of the books.

Can’t think of anywhere beyond the usual tourist venues, although all the area to the north and west of said shop is lovely for pottering and wandering.

This is what’s on at the theatre next week.

https://persephonebooks.co.uk/pages/the-persephone-festival

Wish I could go!

@BlossomBlossomBlossom thank you for the theatre link. The events I'm going to don't allow enough time to fit in a play unfortunately otherwise that would have been great.

I do have some free time and I'm looking forward to visiting Mr B's Emporium for the first time. I might also call in to the Jane Austen Centre .. I'm not sure if it will be too touristy but will probably give it a try.

I'm not going to the festival, but may spend too much time in Bath book shopping. Mr B's is the best, but don't miss Toppings which is great too. The Oxfam shop on Argyle Street has a smallish book section at the back with a lovely view of the weir, and is on the way to the Holburne Museum which has a nice café. There's a hospice secondhand bookshop on Broad Street just round the corner from Persephone which is pretty good. Lots of cafés and restaurants centrally, Café Lucca and Boston Tea Party are close to Persephone, Pump Rooms on tourist itinerary in town (close to Roman Baths and Toppings).

Thanks so much @SomersetReader - some excellent tips! We are eating in the evening at Corkage and the Bathwick Boatman but will need a stop for tea and scones too so will look out for your cafe recommendations. Plus the bookshops of course. I know Toppings in Edinburgh and will be good to explore the Bath one too.

I made beeline for the Persephone shop when I was last in Bath. It’s an imprint I’ve loved for years and I was so looking forward to my visit. The shop was lovely but the service was so dire (3 wholly uninterested sales assistants huddled together discussing sod all) that I gave up and left empty handed. I was the only customer and in half an hour none of acknowledged me let alone offered any help. I can only hop r that your experience isn’t so disappointing @highlandcoo

Victoria Art Gallery. I prefer it to the Holburne, which costs a lot more but seems a bit all fur coat no knickers sometimes. Although the upstairs gallery at the Vic is closed at the mo which is a shame because it has some gems.
https://www.victoriagal.org.uk/

@RebelWithCause I visited the Persephone bookshop in Lamb's Conduit Street a couple of times when I was volunteering nearby and I totally recognise what you say. Posh young women being important and not paying you any attention. Their books are so beautiful and I've enjoyed quite a lot of them so it'll be interesting seeing what their festival is like ...

@heldinadream that exhibition looks great. I liked Toulouse Lautrec as a teenager and had several posters of his work up in my bedroom. Living in a small Scottish town it felt very bohemian! The festival is the weekend of 19-21 April so I'm just going to miss it unfortunately.

DH has been into Persephone a couple of times for me, when he's been in Bath, to get birthday or Christmas presents and he's described it in exactly the same terms.

He said he felt extremely uncomfortable in there, which is not the feeling you want in a bookshop.

It's best to know what you want before going in there, and he was glad that I'd given him title, author and catalogue number so that he could find the books without having to ask for unwilling help.

I do hope Persephone people see this thread and feel mortified.

It’s a long time since I last visited the Lamb’s Conduit Street shop - too long ago for me to retain any memory of a particular vibe.

Sad to say, avoiding rude or supercilious staff through shopping for everything online has been one of the great joys of the 21st century for me. But I’m still a bit sad I won’t be in Bath next weekend.

I’m going to the festival. Really looking forward to it. My only experience of visiting the shop was a positive one. Woman in her 40s served me and was really helpful.

I love Persephone books too and have bought loads by post so I was really excited to actually go to the London shop a few years back. My experience was exactly the same. I didn't expect a welcome party but I was completely ignored.

I'm going too! Just finished packing and very excited!

I’ve just seen this:

https://persephonebooks.co.uk/collections/the-persephone-festival/products/film-screening-little-boy-lost?variant=40830906597443

I had no idea there was a film adaptation! For me reading Little Boy Lost re-shaped my brain - despite decades of avid bookishness beforehand, it set a new bar, and a new idea of what a book could be. I’ve just searched and found the film on YouTube. If possible I’m going to watch along with all of you fortunate festival attendees - only from a hotel at the other end of the country …

I’m here and just been to my first event - a walking book group with Emily of Persephone Books where we discussed Saplings
Sounded odd and I did wonder how it would work however it was really fun and I met some great women .. we swapped favourite Persephone titles.
And the people in the bookshop were very friendly! So far all is good.

Lovely little film - though missing the particular post-war Englishness, the passages of French, and the harsh, excoriating bitterness I remember from the book. The characterisation of the protagonist and his wife were inevitably a world away from what’s in my head. And the film somehow fails to nail the ending - the pacing is somehow off - though it might perhaps be more powerful for anyone coming new to the story.

Glad to have discovered it, though.

Good to hear you’re having fun, @highlandcoo! It’s a shame the festival isn’t an annual thing - I would have started making plans for next year. Not sure about waging another quarter of a century …

(Waiting not waging …)

@BlossomBlossomBlossom I'll try to find the film on YouTube, thanks .. although it might be better to read the book first. I was too late to get to any of the film screenings unfortunately, but did have a very nice dinner at the Bathwick Boatman instead.

It's a quiet Festival for me today so I'm going to visit the Jane Austen centre (hoping not too touristy) and Mr B's Emporium.

@SpikeWithoutASoul and @Butteredtoast55 I've PM'd you.

Do not even think of the film until you’ve read the entire novel!

Thank goodness I was cautious about spoilers. I half assumed everyone on this thread would have read it, but decided to be careful. 😅

The book is genius.

I had a great weekend, drove home with my head full, determined to read more books, listen to a greater range of voices and seek out more opinions.

I appreciated the lack of hard sell both normally in the bookshop and at the festival.
Years ago they sprung into action when I was looking for three books to send a new divorcée, the whole crowd got involved.

Anyway, the festival was great, really positive, speakers were a good range, wish I could have gone to more.

determined to read more books, listen to a greater range of voices and seek out more opinions.

That’s a fantastic outcome, @BookEnginr!

I’m slightly the opposite - absolutely inundated with daily, weekly, monthly and annual reviews, critiques, journals, interviews on new and old literature from every continent - but still find any excuse to loiter on MN rather than actually reading any of the half a million books piled up waiting for me.

So what will you do - start a thread seeking recommendations, or …?

I think I mean cut down on my Mumsnet and news story snapshots and use that time to read a book with a beginning, middle & conclusion then Google background and critical pieces.
I enjoyed the academics looking at High Wages, No Surrender on Sunday. Also loved the panel on you're booked, live.

Mumsnet has taught me so much but it's scatty and the little dopamine hits from a good thread are hard won.

(We might have met in that lovely interior shop...we sat and chatted...)

The You’re Booked event and the Dorothy Whipple discussion were wonderful. I spent far too much in the shop and the grey strip on my shelf has grown considerably.

@SpikeWithoutASoul I also spent a lot! Six Persephone books plus an umbrella .. and a book envelope in beautiful cotton to protect the book you're carrying around (which I hadn't realised I needed until I saw one)

@BookEnginr I think I may have chatted to you in the lovely shop 👋(did you say that your husband and daughter were out walking at the time?) So nice to have met you and I agree about less scrolling and more focused reading .. I am even more aware of how many great books there are, and that I'm getting older and will never have time to read them all ..

I enjoyed the You're Booked event too. The panellists were very engaging. And the walking book club was brilliant. I believe we can access all the talks for a limited time however I'm not sure how to go about that. Does anyone know?

There are rumours of another festival in the future, perhaps with a slightly different format. I'll definitely be there!