Work Rooms for the Elderly, East End 1954. How horrified Rose Henriques would be by the  twenty-first century cutbacks for this kind of service.

Rose Henriques (1889-1972) was a social worker, philanthropist and a generally 'good egg'; she was also an excellent painter, self-taught and no worse for that. She used ink, watercolour, charcoal and oils to paint scenes of the East End where she and her husband lived. This is La Toilette 1930, it's at the Museum of London.

We began with a film by David Lean and we end with one – Dr Zhivago (1965). There are no words really for this masterpiece. But here are the opening sentences of an excellent article comparing the two films: 'David Lean’s Brief Encounter and Dr Zhivago both came into the world looking likely to fail. The British critics loved Brief Encounter, while audiences let it pass by; the critics savaged Zhivago, though the public adored it.' Films, just like novels, like Persephone novels indeed, met varied reactions, have had varied reputations  – and still not everyone sees them as the great art that they are.

Jules et Jim (1962) was the film of the 1960s. Listen to this: it will put a spring in your step all day. And here is a short piece by Derek Malcom explaining why it is one of his films of the century.

What an excellent coincidence that Monday's great film, Brief Encounter, influenced today's, The Apartment (1960). Here's how: 'Seeing David Lean’s Brief Encounter, about an adulterous affair conducted in the apartment of a third party, Billy Wilder scribbled this idea in his notebook: “What about the poor schnook who has to crawl into the still-warm bed of the lovers?” Years would pass before Wilder felt he could slip this concept past film censors.' (more about Wilder here).

Some Like It Hot: this is probably top of the charts in most people's private pantheon of best films. But did you know that the select suburban audience upon whom it was first tried out DID NOT THINK IT WAS FUNNY?

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.