On Saturday we enjoyed the annual Jane Austen Parade which this year went very close to the shop ie. it turned down Milsom Street (almost opposite Edgar Buildings). If you scroll down here, the excellent Bath Newseum has uploaded an eighteen minute video which makes actually being there almost redundant. But naturally we came out of the shop in order to cheer everyone on. And it didn't rain on the parade. Many of those involved then came into Persephone Books, still in their bonnets, to browse our new display, 'If you love Jane Austen, we think you'll also like...' (High Wages, Mariana, Guard Your Daughters and A New System of Domestic Cookery, which is a recipe book first published in 1806, the same year as Emma.)

Although for obvious reasons  – we prefer Persephone books – we are not fanatical Janeites, of course we admire her work, who could not? And we love the films. Our favourite is the 1995 Sense and Sensibility; and we highly recommend the book of the film, which consists of the script and the diary Emma Thompson kept during the filming in April-June 1995. Since she remains one of our all time favourite actresses (up there with Meryl Streep) the book doesn’t date, although it’s sad, retrospectively, about the marvellous Alan Rickman who died in 2016. But the book remains interesting about the process of filming. Nothing was done in one take (as apparently happened with the four-part drama Adolescence which we have just been gripped and upset by), in fact there were always several.

Yet alongside all the current emphasis on Jane Austen's novels, there was a sad article in the Economist about the decline of reading: ‘Adults are reading less. Children are reading less. Teenagers are reading a lot less.’ The link with Adolescence doesn’t have to be spelled out: if Jamie had read books instead of gluing himself to his computer… 

And what are we reading this week? Loach on Loach by Graham Fuller (a 400 page book about 60 years worth of work) and The Eights by Joanna Miller, which is a rather good new novel about the first female undergraduates at Oxford in the 1920s.

The marvellous Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley has died, as has the great Hazel Fox.

Our most popular author, Dorothy Whipple, has been celebrated in her home town of Blackburn and now a rather sweet little film has been made about her, it's available to view here; while the writer Cynthia Johnson has written a very good essay about Dorothy Whipple as a Blackburn novelist. And pleasingly another of our authors is being celebrated in her home town: a plaque is being unveiled to Norah Hoult, author of PB no. 59 There Were No Windows, next Saturday September 20th at 25 Ashfield Park in Dublin. 

There was a review in the New Statesman of a new book about Cavafy, the Greek-Egyptian poet described so memorably by E M Forster as standing ‘absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe.’ We enjoyed being reminded of the glories of Cavafy’s poems, and although it’s very bad form to gloat over unkind reviews, it’s impossible not to giggle when reading that the book ‘can be a frustrating read. It is composed by two professors who seem not to have paid enough attention to what the other has written – I can find no other explanation for all the repetitions and inconsistencies.’ Indeed, it’s always been a mystery how people write books together, although apparently the Nicci French duo writes a chapter each and then reads each other's and criticises; clearly the Cavafy professors forgot the criticising part. 

Charles Lock, who is a professor of English at Copenhagen University (and also wrote the preface for PB no. 95 Greenbanks) mentioned PB no. 81 Miss Buncle’s Book in a piece he published in The Powys Journal: ‘There has long been a narrative convention by which a quiet village is disrupted by an outsider…. What distinguishes Miss Buncle’s Book is that it is not a person who causes the disruption but a book, hers, though the author’s name is not her own. In the novel entitled Disturber of the Peace the inhabitants of Silverstream recognise themselves among the “fictional" inhabitants of a village [and] seek legal advice to sue the unknown author or the known publisher for libel and, failing that, by whatever means to have the book taken out of circulation. Repeatedly and emphatically, the lawyers advise the inhabitants not to pursue the case... It is not always advisable to deduce social and historical attitudes from the evidence supplied by a novel. However, such passages as these…. might be taken to represent plausible and reliable legal advice of the time.’

We have just moved the beautiful 1847 Erard that was in the piano nobile above the shop to another location and replaced it with a beautiful-sounding (some would say more beautiful sounding, though we remain loyal to the Erard) 1914 Bluthner. We are thinking of restarting the monthly hour long plus a glass of champagne concerts. If there are any top notch pianists reading this who would like to play for us (for a fee) please could they get in touch; ditto anybody who would like to be on a mailing list for a concert. And if we did restart, what time would suit? Also would people prefer to forego the champagne and pay less or is the champagne a fun part of things? All suggestions welcome. (Yes, we try to major on women composers, but Chopin and Schubert could not possibly be left out.) And if there is an undergraduate at Bath uni who misses having easy access to a piano, we would be very happy if they wanted to play the Bluthner, just come in to the shop and ask.

The Marching Band (trailer here) is very highly recommended. Also do listen to This Cultural Life with the trumpet player Alison Balsom, it was absolutely fascinating.

Finally, some news about a couple of upcoming events at Persephone Books. On Thursday October 16th at 6.30pm, we are having a launch for PB no. 153 Hop, Step and Jump featuring Rowan Pelling, who wrote the preface, in conversation with Francesca Beauman, followed by champagne and cheese straws. Tickets are £10, more info here. Then on Saturday December 6th, please join us for a Christmas Persephone Day. Having welcomed everyone with mulled wine and mince pies the evening before, we will then host a full day of Christmassy events: an endpapers workshop, two panel discussions, a talk, a film screening and a concert. So why not come to Bath for the day, meet other Persephone readers, do your Christmas shopping in the Persephone bookshop and help us continue to celebrate neglected women writers in as many ways as we know how? Tickets are on sale now and can be booked here.

Nicola Beauman

8 Edgar Buildings

Bath.