Sometimes people ask us not to mention politics eg our approving nod to John Major last week. But, Persephone readers: PUBLISHING IS POLITICAL. Even Dorothy Whipple is political. She may not write about governments or power structures or even local government (as Lettice Cooper does in National Provincial) but she writes about values, values of decency and kindness and empathy and good humour and tolerance and understanding. And all these are political values. Or should be. That's why Brexit broke our hearts. We felt that people who voted for it were rejecting those kind of Whipple-esque values. Call it absurd, call us skewed in the wrong direction, but there we are, that's how it is for us at Persephone Books. Anyway, this is a long way of saying that we are quite low just at the moment what with The Government and the Tories generally, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Food Banks, oh it's endless. Of course in a way it's good that we aren't isolated in a little bubble here in Bath. But actually we wish we were in some ways, everything presses on us all too much. So this week on the Post: let's send people flowers, or give a bunch of daffodils if that is too expensive to contemplate. We sent a friend  this from Sarah Raven (alas now out of stock but there's always next year) and my goodness they have provided weeks of joy – they look beautiful in their sweet basket and they smell amazing.