Well, there's definitely an air of optimism and relief in the UK. ‘No more Conservative iniquity, inadequacy, idiocy, incoherence’ said Edward Docx in the New Statesman. However, if these ‘i' words offend you, please stop reading now, please do not write us a ‘Disgusted Tunbridge Wells’ email (although, ironically, T Wells’s MP is now Lib Dem) because we shall simply reply suggesting you eschew reading us (isn’t eschew a wonderful word?). But sympathy and hugs to our American readers. And btw, mixed with the optimism is exhaustion, it's like convalescing from a long illness; which is why this Letter is shorter than usual (that might be a relief to some).

    If you have read this far, do read Max Porter in the Observer. He is marvellously outspoken eg: ‘We have to address the obvious fact that the tabloid presses and billionaire-owned newspapers are a weapon being use for harm. They are a great sickness in this land…’ Hear, hear. The tragedy is that that the Leveson Inquiry, which promised so much, seems to have achieved nothing. Also do read the marvellous and uplifting Zadie Smith piece 'Here comes the sun', which is about her longing for, and optimism about, a new Britain after the defeat of the Tories. Women writers are the best! One of the best of all is the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, who wrote the Preface to PB no. 130 National Provincial. We are so, so proud of her; of all Persephone Preface writers of course.

    As part of all the the optimism floating around, we are making lots of plans for the future and sometimes we get over-excited. Couldn’t we have a Persephone café one of us says, before asking mournfully, but who would run it?And what about a Persephone shop in New York? Both would be marvellous… We talk about it and then retreat to our knitting or a good book (at the moment the rather interesting biography of Stella Gibbons) or music. If given the choice this, for us, is always Schubert. In the words of Michael Henderson, in a very good piece about him, ’no composer enchants like Schubert, and none looks deeper into the soul.’ Will the beauty of Ständchen ever, ever pall? 

    Amidst all this we have had the usual busy summer in the shop (cf. Diary of a Provincial Bookshop on Instagram), one of us has moved house but were sustained by a rapid, late-night re-reading of PB no. 47 The New House which says it all really on this topic, and we are getting the new books ready to be printed in August. These are Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther, with a new Preface by her granddaughter Ysenda Maxtone-Graham, and the Classic edition of PB no. 85 High Wages. Also the Biannually is having a new look, a new name in fact: it will now be the Persephone Pamphlet, and it will, we hope, resemble an eighteenth-century pamphlet; this is partly in homage to Mary Wollstonecraft, who is such a crucial part of feminist history and who, we are proud to say, lived across the road in Milsom Street for two years before she started to write and while her ideas were formulating; and partly because we felt like a change.

    And reading. Well, curiously, we shall be buying Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet and Ourselves. One fascinating point we took away from the FT review is this: the French all have small fridges and ‘small fridges make good cities’ (because people get out more to go shopping). Also, personally we deplore the use of a freezer because the worldwide energy used to run domestic freezers is presumably a significant part of the climate disaster; in any case a freezer is an indulgence rather than a necessity.  

   If anyone reading this is going to the Edinburgh Festival, please go to the new play about Etty Hillesum on the Fringe. Etty... In Transit is a multimedia event in Old St Paul’s Church on various dates throughout August and promises to be superb.

   Who knew about Agnodice? We feel embarrassed that we didn't until recently. Born in 300 BC, she entered Alexandria medical school dressed as a man but was sentenced to death for daring to practise medicine. Many women revolted and threatened to die with her, from then on women were allowed to practice medicine, provided they only looked after women. 

   There is an unusual and excellent paint shop here in Bath called Atelier Ellis, visiting their beautiful premises is not unlike going to Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge. ‘With Katherine Mansfield as our muse, our twelve new colours harness feminine energy, flora and the beauty of still life’. We are thrilled that the edition of her work on display in the first floor room is PB no. 25 The Montana Stories. 

   And for those of you who haven’t yet managed to get to Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920  (it’s on till 13th October) here is a gem to remind you of what’s in store when you do get there. This is Rubus Odoratus dating from the 1770s by Mary Delany (1700-88), it's normally at the British Museum.     

 Nicola Beauman

8 Edgar Buildings, Bath