The Persephone Post

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 07:41:00 +0000

So if you have arrived at this page you will see that we have left this site and you will now find the (week)daily Persephone Post at www.persephonebooks.co.uk.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:12:00 +0000

Well, there was an outage for a couple of hours, which was a bit tragic for us as it was the day the new Persephone Biannually was arriving. (If you have not had yours in the UK please ring the office; abroad will be in a week or ten days.) We are rather nervously going to say - this is the last Post here. Please go to www.persephonebooks.co.uk and you will find the Post on the Home Page down on the left. Fingers crossed.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:03:00 +0000

Oh dear oh dear, we were going to say elatedly that the Persephone Post site is no longer working and please go to our new site. But now the new site is down! We are desolate and totally helpless. We will keep you posted about what happens next: keep an eye on www.persephonebooks.co.uk and maybe later today things will be back to 'normal', whatever that is these days... The picture is of Josephine Bowes, the text about the picture is on our 'proper' site when it is viewable once more.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:43:00 +0000

Houses, houses – the symbolism of houses hovers over EM Forster's life: one of the many reasons we wanted to go to Goddards was that he lived nearby, at West Hackhurst, built by his father in 1877 and here photographed at the time Forster and his mother were living in it. Forster's parents met through the Farrers who lived at nearby Abinger Hall (now demolished); but after his mother's death Forster was forced to leave West Hackhurst. It still exists here. The nearby village of Holmbury St Mary comes in A Room with a View, which is imbued with Surrey values, called Summer Street, presumably as a reference to the real-life Friday Street. Page 119 of the Penguin edition has a typically Forsterian paragraph about Summer Street: 'The woods had opened to leave space for a sloping triangular meadow. Pretty cottages lined it on two sides, and the upper and third side was occupied by a new stone church, expensively simple, with a charming shingled spire....Some great mansions were at hand, but they were hidden in the trees. The scene suggested a Swiss alp rather than the shrine and centre of a leisured world, and was only marred by two ugly little villas – the villas that had competed with Cecil's engagement, having been acquired by Sir Harry Otway the very afternoon that Lucy had been acquired by him.'

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 06:04:00 +0000

Various men of genius hovered in spirit over our weekend: Lutyens, Vaughan-Williams and, especially, Charles Darwin, who did his famous experiments with Vegetable Mould and Worms at Leith Hill Place, the home of his sister Caroline Wedgwood (1800-1888 and seen here in perhaps the 1820s); she was an active part of her brother's interest that resulted in The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms in 1881 and indeed Darwin's worm-stone is at Leith Hill. (In Darwin Online it says that this painting is taken from a portrait by Romney but since he died in 1802 there must be a muddle.)

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:47:00 +0000

Lutyens and his client wanted the working women to enjoy themselves so they built them a skittles alley, which survives intact today. It is enormous fun, there is something incredibly soothing and liberating about throwing a large six-inch diameter ball (made of concrete? lead?) at speed down the alley in order to try and knock over the beautifully designed skittles. Then the person at the other end puts the balls in the long sloping wooden tray that can be seen at waist height on the right and they come whooshing back. PS The Persephone Post is now working okay on the new website, which also has an amazing search facility so, for example, you can type in Thonet and every single post which has ever mentioned Thonet (bentwood furniture) will come up (there are nine of them, some might be surprised it wasn't twenty-nine). This means that as of Monday October 15th we shall abandon Blogger – regretfully, they have been brilliant for three years – and the daily Post will only appear on our own website. When you go there you can subscribe via email or RSS feed. Or just look when it's convenient.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 06:24:00 +0000

Lutyens was commissioned to build Goddards in 1898 – by a philanthropist and his wife who wanted somewhere for 'ladies of small means', tired working women (nurses, teachers, seamstresses like Emily Fox-Seaton in The Making of a Marchioness) to come and have holidays. Thus it remained until 1910, when a wing was added at either end, and bathrooms (the women didn't have them because the house was only meant for summer use!) and Goddards became a family home. In the original plan the Common Room, which is the main room running across from left to right in yesterday's photograph, was where the women spent their time reading and sewing and chatting. Nowadays it is the dining room, alas a slightly lugubrious one. For meals the twelve of us squeezed into the servants' dining room next to the kitchen and felt much happier there. Here is a 1904 photograph from Country Life showing the Common Room as originally used. Interesting that as ever they didn't have armchairs.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:23:00 +0000

We have just returned from an amazing weekend at Goddards where us Persephone girls (plus partners) celebrated our one hundredth book; and yesterday at lunchtime other Persephone friends and former employees came to help us celebrate. More about Goddards every day this week (on this site for now – we are having problems persuading the Persephone Post that it would look just as good on our new website....)

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 07:41:00 +0000

This beautiful and soothing painting is of course by Ravilious, it's The Causeway, Wiltshire Downs 1937.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 05:40:00 +0000

So Ravilious designed a chair! Alas it's in storage, perhaps there are some others in use, this one was made by H Harris and commissioned by Dunbar Hay Ltd. One of the books about Ravilious would probably tell us more (although looking through the list of them here it's clear there isn't yet a standard 'life'). PS the website may just may go down today, in order to come to life in its new incarnation! If we say 'watch this space', it may literally be a space...

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 06:08:00 +0000

Here is the Ravilious Alphabet mug in green (we sell the mug, bowl and small plate as a set). It's in Case 139 and does anyone know if it was ever manufactured in green? Most of us have only ever seen the pink and blue. PS The new website is fixed (!) and as soon as our shopping cart people have organised the padlock/secure shopping icon we shall be down for a couple of days while the new site goes up. We are not actually quite sure if we'll be able to post, so literally watch this space.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 06:37:00 +0000

This is a page from The Country Life Cookery Book (1937) by Ambrose Heath which we plan to reissue some time in the future: the beginning of every month has an illustration by Ravilious.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 05:40:00 +0000

It's hard to navigate away from pottery, there is something so beautiful yet everyday and useful about the five pieces we had on the Post last week. So this week we'll major on Ravilious but then force ourselves to turn away to other things (paintings and furniture, surprisingly enough) by Thursday or Friday. This jug is 1939 and is in room 143 case 30. PS oh we were over-optimistic when we put up the sentence below last week. The hitch, for those that are interested, has been in the discount: the people who do the shopping cart software refused to allow us to make it three books for £30 but four is £42. They insisted four had to be £40. But, we said, that has been our discount policy since 1999 and our present shopping cart people have no problem with it! It's been a bit fraught. The rumour is that on Friday night they were persuaded to fix it. But we wait to see. So here we go again: If all goes according to plan our website will be down for two days this week while our new one goes live. You will still be able to access the Post because at the moment it's hosted by Blogger. After that it will be on our own website, as will the Forum – and the Shopping Cart. The downside of that is that if our website goes down, then everything is down; the upside is that it's good if everything is together on one site – not sure why but lovely Joe our website designer assures us this is so...

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:58:00 +0000

Looking at all the Susie Cooper pottery on the V and A site here it is undeniable that when we were clearing out our grandmothers' houses in the 1970s or '80s we would have chucked out quite a lot of it; or maybe sold it in what we then called junk shops and it has now found its way onto ebay. However, this 1942 (designed)/1946 (made) cup and saucer would have been cherished: they are also in Room 139 – as we said on Monday, so worth a visit – case 40 shelf 5. They were given by Miss Dorothy Thomas, whoever she was she had a very good eye.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 05:49:00 +0000

Susie Cooper was actually born at Stoke-on-Trent, where we are going today, to the Emma Bridgewater factory: the Persephone jugs and bowls are nearly ready for despatch. This beautiful piece is a 1939 sugar bowl (virtually a thing of the past since so few people have sugar in their tea or coffee), it doesn't seem to be on display but has a V and A number - C:6:4-1993. Interesting that the spaces between the stars are not quite even...

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:40:00 +0000

This 1933 Laura Knight plate is slightly odd but because it is part of the Circus Scenes series we have to assume/hope the bear is a well-looked-after circus animal. It's to be found in Room 139 case 40 shelf 4.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 03:37:00 +0000

This Vanessa Bell plate is c. 1930 and was manufactured by Arthur J Wilkinson and Co. It's in Room 140 Case 19 Shelf 1.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 07:07:00 +0000

A visit to the V and A a few weeks ago reminded us that the sixth floor, the ceramics section, with its bench under the window looking out over London, would be the perfect place for an assignation since, sadly, it was completely deserted when we were there. Well, we had an assignation – looking at the amazing pottery, some of it beautifully displayed and some of it rather bunched together on high-up shelves, but at least it's there, and gloriously so. This earthenware jug by Keith Murray (1892-1981) was made for Wedgwood in 1935. It's in Room 139 Case 39 Shelf 6.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:26:00 +0000

All this week's pictures are in Art from the Second World War published by the Imperial War Museum. This is Incendiaries in a Suburb 1941 by Henry Carr (1894-1970). 'The text says: 'This is a jarring image of the suburbs, with street lighting replaced by fires and normal life threatened and disturbed. The sense of urgency is heightened by Carr's rapid brush strokes and scratching of the paint surface. Carr's own house and studio in London were destroyed in the Blitz.' Lest we forget... (The IWM has seven other Carr paintings, here.)

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 04:56:00 +0000

Edward Ardizzone Shelter Group with Sleeping Child 1940 (watercolour on paper).

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:19:00 +0000

Elsie Hewland (1901-79) painted A Nursery School for War-Workers' Children in 1941. Juliet Gardiner mentioned it in an article about women painters in WW2 here. One reason for the paintings on the Post this week is that a marvellous exhibition, Holding the Line: The Art of the War Years, Sim Fine Art's Third Wartime Art Show, has just opened at 54 Shepherd Market W1, here is the catalogue (it is on until Sunday).

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 05:56:00 +0000

This is Blitzed City with Self-Portrait 1941 by John Minton. We had John Minton on the Post on 14 August 2009 and he was mentioned on 1 December 2010: googling was necessary to discover this, but with the new website – imminent – we should be able to search the Post; although in fact this summer's excellent work experience girls have been making an index by simply going through it, laborious but very very useful. Now it's been three years we need to avoid repetition... This painting is very Few Eggs and No Oranges, although he himself would be better suited to Farewell Leicester Square.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 06:54:00 +0000

The bravery of the WAAFs have lingered in our minds and it is hard to turn away from what was happening in Britain seventy years ago; also because working on our new website, and the 'categories' layout, we have realised that we in fact have seventeen titles in the WWII category. This week's pictures are all at the Imperial War Museum and can be seen on the BBC/PCF site. Southern England: Spitfires attacking Flying Bombs 1944 is by Thomas Monnington.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:05:00 +0000

Despite the jolly, almost school-marm smiles, these WAAFs are what we are paying tribute to tomorrow. As described here, Joan Mortimer, Elspeth Henderson and Helen Turner were teleprinter operators who received the Military Medal for gallantry for staying at their posts (despite masonry crashing all around them) and continuing to work the defence lines during the German attack on Biggin Hill on 1st September 1940.

noreply@blogger.com (The Persephone Post) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 04:45:00 +0000

And here are a group of WAAFs in what looks like an old barn listening to a talk. What is extraordinary for us is the intense seriousness of what they will be hearing about. (And on a frivolous note, why don't those of us with long hair nowadays roll it in this way?Maybe it's a lost skill. But if even eg. Valentine in Parade's End had a crop thirty years before, why on earth didn't these young women simply cut it all off? What with washing it and hair pins it must have been a huge extra chore.)