Finally coming down to earth after the heavenly twentieth birthday celebrations (thank you again for all the messages, flowers, cards, visitors to the shop, friendly remarks), the exhilaration of being with a million like-minded people (we walked/shuffled from Leicester Square to Park Lane, St James’s, Parliament Square and Waterloo for the train home – it took six hours but we wouldn’t have missed a moment), watching the petition top two, three, four and now five million, and yesterday’s glorious weather which allowed us to give the new office dog a proper outing. But now what? We keep one banners particularly in mind: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 52%/SENSE AND SENSIBILITY 48%. But alas, our masters don’t read books, let alone Jane Austen, so that will make no difference to them at all. Indeed, it was like being in a tin-pot dictatorship to walk/shuffle past Downing Street to realise that SHE WASN’T THERE. Naturally she wasn’t there. But then, at the end of the weekend, looking at our emails last night, we were alerted that our beloved Rose Hilton died in her sleep last Tuesday. So back to art and colour and wonderful women painters and a bit of normality: this week on the Post, Rose Hilton (1931-2019). This is Friend in my Studio 1978 and here is a marvellous film about Rose  (we call her that because we have two of her paintings, and living with them makes her our friend even if she never knew it).

Here is an original drawing for Miss Pettigrew, kindly given to us by Winifred Watson’s son to mark the ten-year anniversary of the Persephone Books reprint in 2011.

What a lovely party, thank you to all the Persephone readers who came to see us yesterday. Ambrosial, indeed!

Today is the day of our twentieth birthday party in the shop. We will be spending today celebrating with our readers, supporters and friends. And then later we will ‘bend our elbows’ in honour of Miss Pettigrew (and all the other Persephone heroines: Miss Ranskill, Miss Buncle, Mariana, Ellen, Flush, Etty, Cressida, Doreen…).

‘The sheer fun, the light-heartedness’ in this wonderful 1938 book ‘feels closer to a Fred Astaire film than anything else’ comments the Preface-writer Henrietta Twycross-Martin, who found Miss Pettigrew for Persephone Books. She came in to the shop one day with her mother’s copy, knowing that it would make lots of Persephone readers very happy. ‘It was my mother’s favourite book’, she continues, ‘sophisticated and niave by turns, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is also charmingly daring.’

This week, Wednesday March 20th, marks our twentieth year of publishing. There will be a party in the shop from 12-8, do try and come along: we shall have smoked salmon sandwiches, cake, tea, and champagne and a rather special ‘going home’ present. The Persephone Post this week celebrates our perennial bestseller Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (PB no.21) and its marvellous illustrations by Mary Thompson. Here is our heroine knocking on the wrong door and meeting the glamorous Miss Delysia LaFosse.

Cockerels. This is a particular favourite of ours because on the mantelpiece we have two life-size nineteenth- century ceramic cockerels. We would not have bought them but, after several decades, cannot imagine living without them. They look very like Kate Mears’s painted version. Yes, maybe it’s time they had an outing in the shop window. Meanwhile: next week is our twentieth birthday – our first three books were published on March 20th 1999 – and the Post will celebrate the date with pictures from Miss Pettigrew, our bestseller without which we would not be here. There is a party in the shop from noon-8 pm at which cake, champagne and tea will be served, and a rather splendid ‘going-home’ present. Although we have to admit that the continuing Brexit agony has sapped much of our joie de vivre, but if you have a moment please do come along to cheer us up, hear about our plans for the next twenty years, and talk about the books which, after all, are the reason for our being here.