Collecting Persephone Books

[LadyTakingTea]

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

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?

The Prisoner is on BBC Sounds at the moment.

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

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.

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

I have about 60 now and my dream is to own the whole collection. I have a mixture of new and second hand. I did have a monthly subscription as a birthday present a few years back too. I treated myself to three new ones this month and will do the same next month. I have 1 - 24 , random ones in the middle and most of the recently published ones over the last 3 years. Persephone books and my Folio collection of Anthony Trollopes bring me so much joy.

Thanks-that's good to know. I'm going to read it first though as I have it in my hand at the moment.

@DiggoryVenn I buy them new apart from one, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day that I found in an Oxfam bookshop in Yorkshire. I always look but so far, no luck!

I have two copies of The Making of a Marchioness because the first one, which was bought for me as a gift, was in an edition with a picture cover and I want the whole collection to have a uniform grey jacket. I intend to give the picture one to a friend as a birthday gift.

@IlovetoKnitandRead That's my dream too!

@EasilyPleased I have The Squire, as yet untouched.

Has anyone read The Victorian Chaise-longue?

@LadyTakingTea I have read The Victorian Chaise-Lounge and I must admit that I didn’t really get it. It was one of my earlier Persephone reads and I think I was expecting a more spooky story, not the psychological torture.
(I have just checked my reading journal and I read it in 2016, so I might re-read it this weekend.)

If you're at all interested in cooking and social history then Good Things In England by Florence White is very good.

If you do @IlovetoKnitandRead I'd love to know your thoughts on it.

I very much enjoyed it as I was reading it but I've sincebeen thinking about it and have come to the sad conclusion that I don't really know what was going on! Was it a dream or was it about reincarnation or time travel or something else entirely?

Thanks for the recommendation @DreamingOfGeneHunt . It sound as if it is something I would like.

I really liked "Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes". I don't think there are any that have been a real disappointment, but I've avoided some I know I wouldn't enjoy (literary, darker).

Oh, great — hope you enjoy it. I think EB should be known for more than National Velvet.

I liked those too @reallyalurker

I don't think The Victorian Chaise-Longue or Harriet would be to your liking though.

Inspired by this thread I have purchased a few more this morning to add to my collection:

The Prisoner - Sally Carson
The Blank Wall - Elizabeth Saxnay Holding

And then some eBay purchases:

A London Child of the 1870s - Mary Vivian Hughes
The Exiles Return - Edmund de Waal
Round about a pound a week - Maud Pemberton Reeves
How to Run your Home without help - Kay Small Shaw
Little boy lost - Marghanita Laski
Greenbanks - Dorothy Whipple
Operation Heartbreak - Duff Cooper

So 9 in total - it could easily have been more, but some managed to get away from me at the last minute.
I will have to clear some more space on shelves for them.

That's fantastic, @Jaffapaffa . I really hope that you enjoy them.

How many will you have now? Maybe it's time to buy a special bookcase!

OMG I only have 48! I thought it was more !
I have just finished Greengates and I loved it.
Here* *is my special bookcase. I need to move the Dickens really so I can fit more Persephone and Folio books. The Dickens were £25 for the lot in a National Trust bookshop

That looks good! Plenty of room there for more. Great Dickens bargain by the way.

I can spot the Victorian Chaise Longue: it's the only one too slim to have the picture of Persephone on the spine. I know they couldn't do it but I am unreasonable and it irritates me! 😀

Mooching around in my local charity shop this morning and found this, a low-risk way to start, for the princely sum of £1.50 :)