The painting on the front of our Classic edition of The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett: Woman Reading by Robert James Gordon. HAPPY CHRISTMAS  to all Persephone readers. The Post will resume next Thursday 28th December, which is when the shop re-opens.

Portrait of a Girl in Green Reading (actually Blue-Green) is by Francis John Wyburd (1826 – 1893).

What an intelligent and attractive expression on her face! Young Woman Reading a Book 1934 was painted by Aleksandr Deineka (1899-1969): three of his paintings are in Red Star Over Russia: a Revolution in Visual Culture 1905-55 at Tate Modern until mid February. Here is an article about him. But Young Woman Reading was clearly an uncharacteristic work for him.

Woman Reading with Parasol (or rather should Liseuse a l’ombrelle perhaps be Woman with Parasol Reading?)  was painted by Matisse in 1921.

On the Post this week: women reading i.e. what most Persephone readers would rather be doing as they make mince pies, chop the red cabbage and apples, whip the cream. No, that’s a horrible thing to say, we love all the Christmas preparations, But who isn;t longing for Boxing Day when they might be allowed a few hours on the sofa with a Good Book? Reading at a Cafe c. 1920 is by Jane Peterson (1876-1965), she was American and if we ever did Fidelity as a Classic this would be the picture on the front.

There is a new exhibition at the V & A devoted to Winnie the Pooh and E H Shepard’s illustrations, so this week the Post is devoted to the latter. We reproduce (and give as a postcard with every copy of the book) the beautiful E H Shepard watercolour which he painted for the original jacket of Greenery Street by Denis Mackail. It’s about a young couple’s first year of married life in a small house in Chelsea and is one of our most beloved books: the perfect present for a young couple, a Londoner, or anyone interested in 1920s social history. Or a really good read. PG Wodehouse called it ‘so good that it makes one feel that it’s the only possible way of writing a book, to take an ordinary couple and just tell the reader all about them.’

Very very ironically Anne Finlay is best known at the moment because of a painting of her: it is by Dorothy Johnstone and was used on the poster for the recent Modern Scottish Women Exhibition in Edinburgh. This portrait is now back at AberdeenArt Gallery. There is a letter from Anne Finlay in the Royal Academy archive which reveals that she lived at 155 Sheen Road. Will any kind Persephone reader living nearby please go past some time soon and pay homage to Anne.