It’s a Bank Holiday in the UK and the shop is closed – so the Persephone staff are lying on sofas or in deck chairs (the former at the moment but maybe the sun will come out later) reading a good book: Madame Solario in anticipation of next year’s republication and a novel by Susan Tweedsmuir, John Buchan’s wife, as lent by Elizabeth Buchan (a relation by marriage), rather good  so far. And for a bit of timelessness: St Albans Abbey.