The Illustrated Dust Jacket: 1920-1970 (2017) by Martin Salisbury shows how the middle decades of the twentieth century were the golden of the dust jacket, many of which were designed by leading artists and illustrators of the day. It also underlines the impact a cover can have on a reader. There must be many for whom mention of Tom's Midnight Garden (1959) automatically conjures up this first edition cover by Susan Einzig (1922-2009).

At 16.55 on TPTV tomorrow, Good Friday, there's a chance to watch the classic GPO documentary film Night Mail (1936) with words by WH Auden, score by Benjamin Britten, and publicity poster designed by Pat Keely. The TPTV schedule, like the old-fashioned Radio Times, is published in advance on the website so you can plan your vintage viewing. Happy Easter!

Brief Encounter (1946) is a favourite on TPTV and a favourite with us. It could be said that the book in Laura Jesson's basket (above) is the foundation stone of Persephone Books. As Nicola Beauman writes, "A Very Great Profession was conceived when I first saw the film of Brief Encounter on television...In it the heroine...goes into the local town every week to do a bit of shopping, have a cafe lunch, go to the cinema and change her library book...It was the glimpse of her newly-borrowed Kate O'Brien in her shopping basket that made me want to find out about the other novels the doctor's wife had been reading." The rest, as they say, is history.

James Mason also stars with Joan Bennett in The Reckless Moment 1949 which is based on The Blank Wall and directed by Max Ophüls (his Letters from an Unknown Woman (1949) would be another good Easter weekend choice). The Paris Review has a fascinating article about this tense domestic thriller which is worth watching after reading the book.

The long Easter weekend is the perfect opportunity to watch old films while eating chocolate. We highly recommend Talking Pictures TV, a wonderful way to (re)discover C20 films, shorts, TV series and documentaries, and a kind of parallel world to Persephone Books. It sometimes screens films based on Persephone Books titles, such as They Were Sisters (1945) starring James Mason (above). He is a regular on TPTV with his beautifully modulated voice and ability to play dangerous charmers; today he is in The Night Has Eyes (1942).

Together with friends such as Vita Sackville-West and Constance Spry, Elizabeth David was a frequent guest at Benton End. She acquired Cedric Morris' 'The Eggs' (1944) around 1953, and it was used to great effect on the cover of the first edition of An Omelette and a Glass of Wine (1984). She presented the painting to the Tate in 1992.

Cedric Morris was also a renowned breeder of irises. Garden designer Dan Pearson writes,"...the Benton irises, with their very particular colour palette and form...repeatedly spoke to me. In the words of the man who had selected them, it was their ‘elegance, pride and delicacy’ that set them apart, but also their mutable colouring, with ‘breaks’ as delicate as the speckling on a bird’s egg". Here they are in his fabulous 'Iris Seedlings' (c1943, Tate). (For more, see the excellent Benton End Instagram account.)