Well, here at Persephone Books we are in fact slightly overwhelmed with orders: people are (unsurprisingly) reading during the pandemic; Christmas is approaching; the Bloomberg video has had approaching 300,000 views ; our loyal customers are ordering from the October Biannually. We are not yet panicing yet (but may be this time next week: we plan to send out an email on Friday offering free gift wrapping for all orders placed next weekend). But it is not just the (slightly) harassed that needs calm. We all do! So this week on the Post the five best films from the years 1945-65, years during which many of the best Persephone books were written. And for New Year we might suggest the five best films for 1925-45. So first up: Brief Encounter (1945). This is so well known and so iconic there is almost nothing to be said. But for Persephone readers one of the great interests of the film is that Laura, Mrs Everywoman, only meets her lover Alec because she is going into town to change her library book. Circulating libraries as they were once called, lending libraries later, 'the library' later still, were a huge part of the lives of our ancestors who read Persephone books when they were first published.