The Persephone Diary for 2017 is in (and available in the shop and from our website) but also we have been given  a beautiful 2017 calendar called The Reading Woman which will be hanging in the shop in January. This week on the Post, five our of its dozen paintings, first of all Laura Reading 1885 by Walter Crane (1845-1915). Laura was the young woman for whom the poet Petrarch (1304-1374) nursed an unrequited passion; when she showed no sign of returning his love, he poured out his feelings into sonnets for which he is famous. Walter Crane’s wife Mary was the model for Laura in this painting.