{"title":"North of England","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"they-were-sisters","title":"They Were Sisters","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 530px;\"\u003e\n\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/Screen_Shot_2016-07-25_at_13.57.27.png?v=1593109349\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"redtext\"\u003ePREFACE BY CELIA BRAYFIELD\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e464pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155462\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1943, '\u003cstrong style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eThey Were Sisters\u003c\/strong\u003e is a compulsively readable but often harrowing novel by one of Persephone's best writers, who always manages to make the ordinary extraordinary,' writes Celia Brayfield in her preface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the fourth Dorothy Whipple novel we have republished and, like the \u003ca title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/pages\/Dorothy-Whipple\" href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/pages\/Dorothy-Whipple\"\u003eothers\u003c\/a\u003e, it is apparently gentle but has a very strong theme, in this case domestic violence. Three sisters marry very different men and the choices they make determine whether they will flourish, be tamed or be repressed. Lucy's husband is her beloved companion; Vera's husband bores her and she turns elsewhere; and Charlotte's husband is a bully who turns a high-spirited naive young girl into a deeply unhappy woman. This is the story of how those marriages shape the sister’s lives, the consequences of their decisions, and the sisterly love that hopes to save them from tragedy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1945 \u003cstrong style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eThey Were Sisters\u003c\/strong\u003e was made into a film starring James Mason.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso available as a \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/they-were-sisters-classic\" title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/they-were-sisters-classic\"\u003ePersephone Classic\u003c\/a\u003e, a \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/collections\/audiobooks\/products\/they-were-sisters-audiobook\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ePersephone Audiobook\u003c\/a\u003e and a \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.persephonebooks.co.uk\/persephone-ebooks\"\u003ePersephone eBook\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eThe endpaper is 'Pattern of Anemones', a 1935 printed cotton crepe dress fabric manufactured by Calico Printers' Association, Manchester. It was thus manufactured in the part of the world in which Dorothy Whipple lived and wrote; and could have been worn by any of the three sisters but perhaps most especially by Vera.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eStill from the 1945 film of \u003cem\u003eThey Were Sisters\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dorothy Whipple","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":31828810956867,"sku":"PB 56","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":31828810989635,"sku":"PB 56","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":31828811022403,"sku":"PB 56","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":39767820206147,"sku":"PB 56","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/products\/56-they-were-sisters-web-162x162_2.jpg?v=1737385414"},{"product_id":"the-crowded-street","title":"The Crowded Street","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 499px;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/images-larger-08309.jpg?v=1593110461\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"redtext\"\u003ePREFACE BY MARION SHAW\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e328pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155660\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe theme of \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Crowded Street\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, 1924, is one that is familiar from other Persephone novels: it was then assumed that young women would stay at home while looking for a husband. Muriel, who believes that ‘men do as they like’ whereas women ‘wait to see what they will do’, lives in a town in Yorkshire waiting – for what? She tries to conform to the values of her snobbish, socially ambitious mother; she tries to be ‘attractive’ to men; eventually she is rescued, by her friend Delia, a young woman who is in some ways a portrait of Vera Brittain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the description of life in small-town ‘Marshington’, Winifred Holtby expressed her conviction that young women should be allowed to live away from home, to work, to develop as personalities away from their families, to shake off the ties that many mothers seemed to think it was their prerogative to impose on their daughters. There are other themes, too, which make the novel fascinating: parts of it are set during the First World War (in 1918 Winifred had left Oxford to serve with the WAACs in France) and it was with first-hand knowledge of war that she spent much of her short life writing and lecturing about pacifism. Then there are the pre-\u003cem\u003eCold Comfort Farm\u003c\/em\u003e scenes: Muriel’s sister marries a farmer’s son and lives in circumstances that would, perhaps, contribute to Stella Gibbons’s satirical gaze a few years hence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough Muriel goes away to school, most of the novel describes her life waiting for life to begin, waiting for a husband.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Crowded Street\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003eis thus about the need to withstand the tyranny of ‘sex success. Turn and twist how you will, it comes to that in the end.’ The book’s conclusion is that ‘the thing that matters is to take your life into your own hands and live it, accepting responsibility for failure or success. The really fatal thing to do is to let other people make your choices for you, and then to blame them if your schemes should fail and they despise you for the failure.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1920 printed dress silk fabric designed by George Sheringham for Seftons. \u003cspan\u003eThe flowers are poppies and jonquils, the former giving a small nod to the battlefields of the recently ended war and the latter another nod to the optimism and cheeriness of spring-time daffodils and the future.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNorth Riding Landscape near Ganthorpe by Lawrence Toynbee 1922-2002 © Government Art Collection\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Winifred Holtby","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":31828813840451,"sku":"PB 76","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":31828813873219,"sku":"PB 76","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":31828813905987,"sku":"PB 76","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":39767711318083,"sku":"PB 76","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/products\/76-the-crowded-street-web-162x162_2.jpg?v=1591633523"},{"product_id":"high-wages","title":"High Wages","description":"\u003cp class=\"wp-caption alignright\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/for_High_Wages_480x480_89e9d41a-6e1d-4ab6-b088-8d51ddadc7bd_480x480.jpg?v=1645908971\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"wp-caption-text\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePREFACE BY JANE BROCKET\u003cbr\u003e328pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155752\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e‘“Wanted: a young lady to assist in the shop. Apply within.” Jane’s heart beat faster. She straightened up. “Well…” she breathed. She bent down and read again. “Well…. I never…”’\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen eighteen-year-old Jane gets a job in a draper’s shop in a small town in Lancashire in 1912, so begins a great adventure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt first she delights in learning to cut fabric, getting to know the customers and making friends with the other shop-girls, but the terrible working conditions – low wages, too-small portions of kippers and bread, tidying up until late on Christmas Eve – lower her spirits. She spends her days off visiting the department stores of Manchester and London, which teach her as much about unwanted male attention as about\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003ethe business of clothes, but before long an unexpected turn of events allows her, thrillingly, to open her own dress shop; amid struggles with the cleaning and cooking, trips to the local library, and a painful love affair, she continues to fight for the right to realise her own potential.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs Jane Brocket writes in the Preface: ‘In a delightful book full of details of clothes and furnishings, bust-bodices and gloves, Dorothy Whipple creates a powerful argument for the need for women to work, not for political or primary economic reasons, but for self-fulfilment and for the realisation of talent and potential.’ \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHigh Wages\u003c\/strong\u003e, first published in 1930 and Dorothy Whipple's second novel, is a lively portrayal of working-class life in the shadow of World War One, as well as a fascinating glimpse\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e into the history of fashion.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso available as a \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/high-wages-classic-edition?_pos=2\u0026amp;_sid=2d7b0635e\u0026amp;_ss=r\" title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/high-wages-classic-edition?_pos=2\u0026amp;_sid=2d7b0635e\u0026amp;_ss=r\"\u003ePersephone Classic\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Farm Scene', a 1930 dress fabric by Cryséde Ltd. The company was well known for its beautiful and unusual designs which would have been admired, and stocked in her shop, by Jane in \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHigh Wages\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eA 1930 dress by Alec Walker for Crysede Ltd using block-printed Crysede silk\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dorothy Whipple","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":39575163764803,"sku":"PB 85","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":39575163830339,"sku":"PB 85","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":39575163895875,"sku":"PB 85","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":39767576707139,"sku":"PB 85","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/products\/85-high-wages-web-162x162_2.jpg?v=1744361076"},{"product_id":"because-of-the-lockwoods","title":"Because of the Lockwoods","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 350px;\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/seated-girl_rose_hilton_2002.jpg?v=1593112202\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePREFACE BY HARRIET EVANS\u003cbr\u003e488pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263006\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBecause of the\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLockwoods \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eby Dorothy Whipple, Persephone's bestselling writer, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003ewas first published in 1949. It was her penultimate book. As described by novelist Harriet Evans in the preface,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Because of the Lockwoods\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e is one of my favourites of [Whipple's] novels. The story is deceptively simple: the entanglement of two families in a northern town called Aldworth. One, the Lockwoods, wealthy and powerful, in a position to patronise and help the second family, the poor Hunters, who have been left fatherless with a weak, ineffectual mother. Though the thudding heart of the story draws the reader inexorably along, hoping for the meek to conquer the strong, it is a surprising book in many ways, not least for its subversive portrayal of family – the children are often the adults, the parents the untrustworthy, unwise ones, and Whipple makes it clear that what we call today the nuclear family is not the answer to happiness. But what may be most satisfying about the book is how the climax is reached as a result of character. This is twentieth-century British fiction at its very best.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvans continues:  ‘If, like me, you are one of the thousands of readers who discovered Dorothy Whipple through Persephone’s reissues, you know well that feeling of resigned bewilderment suffusing the sigh of satisfaction you utter after finishing one of her novels. Why isn’t she better known? Why is she not acclaimed more widely, when so many of her less talented contemporaries are still in print?... For the case does need to be made for Dorothy Whipple’s entry into the pantheon of great British novelists of the twentieth century.... There is something about the clarity of expression and calm curiosity of Whipple’s prose which is hugely pleasing. She never employs excess to drive her point home but uses each word carefully and simply. Then there is the readability factor: perhaps that is what mostly damages her reputation, the fact that she is so damned unputdownable. The thinking is the same as it has been for years: shouldn’t real literature be hard to read?'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere at Persephone Books we all reply in unison: 'No!'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Chestnut', a 1949 fabric design by Mary Bryan for Edinburgh Weavers. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e'Seated Woman' by Rose Hilton 2002, in a private collection.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dorothy Whipple","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":31828817215555,"sku":"PB 110","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":31828817248323,"sku":"PB 110","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":31828817281091,"sku":"PB 110","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":39767431643203,"sku":"PB 110","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/products\/lockwoods_thumbnail.jpg?v=1591633718"},{"product_id":"journey-home-and-other-stories","title":"The Journey Home and Other Stories","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 360px;\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"\u003e\n\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/ernest_procter_all_the_fun_of_the_fair_1928.jpg?v=1593112877\"\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePREFACE BY PHILIP HENSHER\u003cbr\u003eAFTERWORD BY VALERIE WATERHOUSE\u003cbr\u003e248pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263143\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eSometimes described as 'the Bradford Chekhov', Malachi Whitaker (whose real name was Marjorie but she preferred the zanier Malachi) was born in Yorkshire in 1895. She married, and after some time abroad came back to Yorkshire, where she lived for the rest of her life. She is very much a Yorkshire writer. As the novelist and critic Philip Hensher, author of the Preface, observes: ‘It is a Yorkshire woman’s voice, apparently direct, straight-faced in humour and tragedy, confident of its own reach and power. She needed the place she came from.’ \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn the late 1920s Malachi Whitaker began writing (or perhaps had always been writing and now began to publish) short stories. Jonathan Cape, the London publisher, brought out her first collection in 1929. Three more collections followed in 1930, 1932 and 1934. After that she wrote very little, and although she published a memoir, her output of short stories dwindled. Partly this was because she adopted two children, partly because the Whitaker family moved house so frequently, but mostly because, after an outpouring when she was in her thirties, Malachi Whitaker seems to have been written out. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eYet she had been an extraordinary, indeed an important writer. Every one of the twenty stories we publish (five from each of the four volumes) is a gem, and it was of course very hard to choose twenty from a possible total of nearly eighty. Two selections of stories were published in the late 1940s and one in 1984 but nothing since then. We did not particularly try to ‘be different’ from the previous selections, but several of the stories have not in fact been reprinted since they appeared in the early 1930s. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e‘Like many of the best short story writers,’ writes Philip Hensher, ‘Malachi Whitaker is fascinated by the ordinary. Just as in Chekhov, the banal dissolves under her precise gaze, to be replaced by the unique, the freshly experienced. These things happen all the time: and yet these things have never happened before. Her stories explore, with an eager gleam, ordinary people in extraordinary situations. She loves embarrassment, that unstoppable response when things go wrong. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e'The short story was the perfect vehicle for Whitaker’s gifts, and for her particular subject. The world’s oddities are glimpsed in a flash, and we pass on, partly enlightened, amused or startled... She is a unique and daring writer, whose work richly rewards exploration and rediscovery. Under her intense, scrupulous gaze, the event that happens all the time and the event that is happening only once are, in the logic of art, strangely identical. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p3\"\u003e'Malachi Whitaker is not like other authors. Her career is exceedingly strange in its shape, and her work quite unlike anything else. She gathered no followers and was almost forgotten in her later, silent years. Reading her now, it is inexplicable how English letters failed to find a place for a writer of such verve, colour, range and power. She is one of the great English short story writers, and her work is slowly reaching some prominence.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThe endpapers are taken from a 1933 textile design by Stanley Wilkinson, a student a Bradford School of Art who lived at Keighley.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e'All the Fun of the Fair', Ernest Procter, 1927\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Malachi Whitaker","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":31828822949955,"sku":"PB 124","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":31828822982723,"sku":"PB 124","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":31828823015491,"sku":"PB 124","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":39767735566403,"sku":"PB 124","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/products\/journey_home_thumbnail.jpg?v=1591633996"},{"product_id":"national-provincial","title":"National Provincial","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 500px;\" data-mce-style=\"width: 500px;\"\u003e\n\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/leeds_2_1.jpg?v=1593113225\" data-mce-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/leeds_2_1.jpg?v=1593113225\"\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"redtext\"\u003ePREFACE BY RACHEL REEVES\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e624pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263204\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNational Provincial\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e(1938) is first and foremost ‘a social-political novel, a sprawling panorama of West Riding life and politics in the mid 1930s’ as Rachel Reeves, currently the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as MP for Leeds West, writes in the Preface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis 600-page book begins with an enticing description of the central character's arrival home (\u003ca title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/pages\/lettice-cooper\" href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/pages\/lettice-cooper\"\u003eLettice Cooper\u003c\/a\u003e draws us so inexorably into the Aire world that we are gripped from the first line). Mary\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e has left her job as a journalist in London \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eto take up a position on the \u003cem\u003eYorkshire Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e close to her childhood home, mostly so she can help care for her mother, who has rheumatoid arthritis, when her sister marries\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e a well-known local cricket star. \u003c\/span\u003e Just like Mrs Gaskell’s \u003ci\u003eWives and Daughters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e (1866) \u003c\/i\u003eand Winifred Holtby’s \u003ci\u003eSouth Riding (1936)\u003c\/i\u003e, the novel evokes Yorkshire life in all its facets, as well as the everyday experience of a young woman living there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe climax of the book is a strike. But the main focus throughout is on snobbery, and very British kinds of snobbery; like \u003ca title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/pages\/dorothy-whipple\" href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/pages\/dorothy-whipple\"\u003eDorothy Whipple\u003c\/a\u003e (another Northern writer), \u003ca title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/pages\/lettice-cooper\" href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/pages\/lettice-cooper\"\u003eLettice Cooper\u003c\/a\u003e is clearly amused by this, and yet her interest remains very much in the political and social aspect of it all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRachel Reeves ends her Preface with a beautifully written description of present-day Leeds, a city which ‘has a proud history and confident future, but the inequalities of wealth and power that the Left Book Club attendees in Lettice Cooper’s novel sought to abolish are still with us. In an age in which tensions between the national and the provincial persist, her story is of timeless relevance today.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNational Provincial \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003ewas first published, the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e said that the author ‘brings quick feeling to her commentary on a scene that is obviously in her bones’ while the \u003ci\u003eManchester Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ereviewer wrote that she ‘has done for a contemporary industrial town pretty much what \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003edid for a nineteenth century country town. It is a story that she tells beautifully and movingly, and it is a story that is hers as well as her characters.’ \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNational Provincial\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e is a great favourite of book groups: despite its length, it is oddly page-turning, with plenty to discuss (domestic feminism, social inequality, women in journalism, and so on) and there's even a love story in there too. We can't recommend it highly enough. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eAn early 1930s design by John Churton for the Silver Studio, intended for production as a woven cloth. © MODA, Middlesex University\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eGeneral Post Office, City Square, Leeds, opened 1896\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lettice Cooper","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":31828823998531,"sku":"PB 130","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":31828824031299,"sku":"PB 130","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":31828824064067,"sku":"PB 130","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":39767640866883,"sku":"PB 130","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/products\/130_national_provincial_thumbnail_1.jpg?v=1591634059"},{"product_id":"a-well-full-of-leaves","title":"A Well Full of Leaves","description":"\u003cdiv data-mce-fragment=\"1\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"\u003e\u003cimg data-mce-fragment=\"1\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/26ecf13751373afdf8dfdd69d0905f2f_480x480.jpg?v=1650355600\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAFTERWORD BY ELEANOR FARJEON\u003cbr\u003e312pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263334\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Well Full of Leaves\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003eis about a family of four children growing up somewhere in the north of England, with an utterly vile mother who is cruel to her children, self-centred, and deplorable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"\u003eIt isn’t everyone who has a mother like ours. She was a specialist whose specialities never touched the kind, the gentle, or the constructive. She was at her best when she was toppling the entire scene. All her dislike of us and the world in general was extended into whatever she was doing. Under her hands soapsuds were angry, clothes sneered, steam menaced, crockery raved…\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book is saying, rather like Dorothy Canfield Fisher in PB no. 7 \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/the-home-maker\" href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/the-home-maker\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eThe Home-Maker\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e (1924), that without nurturing and kindness, a child’s growth is stunted. The rather coy 1943 subtitle to \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Well Full of Leaves\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e was \u003cem\u003eA Story of Happiness\u003c\/em\u003e but we have abandoned this because it has such an old-fashioned ring and indeed we would want to substitute \u003cem\u003eA Story of Unhappiness\u003c\/em\u003e; because each of the four children is inevitably damaged in some way. Because the novel describes the struggles of a young girl who eventually succumbs to tuberculosis, it is in part autobiographical – auto-fiction years before the term was invented. Written in a strikingly adventurous style, it divided critical opinion from the beginning: the \u003cem\u003eSaturday Review of Literature\u003c\/em\u003e commented that 'Myers possesses that extraordinary and unaccountable thing that we sometimes call genius', but the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e described it as 'unwittingly burlesque'. Everyone, however, admired Elizabeth Myers’s descriptions of the natural world, which are truly unforgettable. She writes with a purity – an honesty, if you like – that is surprisingly rare.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe child who is at the heart of the book, Laura, survives her abusive mother through her intense, overwhelming love of nature, as did Elizabeth. She is able to discover happiness in the simple things of life. 'She remembered how, as a small child in the backyard of her home in grimy, smoky Ancoats (a suburb of Manchester), a cluster of dandelions transformed the yard for her into a beautiful garden of fragrant blooms.’ There was a strong streak of mysticism in Elizabeth Myers, reminiscent of Gerald Manley Hopkins. As she wrote, ‘no man, not even a Catholic, can understand the holy sweetness of God who does not recognise the holiness of a blade of grass or of a little town sparrow.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1943, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Well Full of Leaves\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003ewas almost immediately reprinted as a Penguin and went through several editions, but after the end of the decade it was never revived. Why not? Is this connected to Myers’s death in 1947, or is it ‘dated’, or is it just one of the peculiar anomalies of the publishing industry? Certainly some will adore this novel, some will not, but we hope that enough people will appreciate the unconventional, beautiful, unruly joy of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso available: a \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/collections\/persephone-merch\/products\/the-persephone-napkin\" title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/collections\/persephone-merch\/products\/the-persephone-napkin\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ePersephone napkin\u003c\/a\u003e and a \u003ca title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/collections\/persephone-merch\/products\/persephone-re-usable-fabric-envelopes\" href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/collections\/persephone-merch\/products\/persephone-re-usable-fabric-envelopes\"\u003ePersephone book envelope\u003c\/a\u003e in the fabric used for the endpaper for this book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eThe endpapers are taken from a fabric designed by Phyllis Barron in 1935. It was\u003cbr\u003ea commission from Rosebank Fabrics in Ramsbottom, near Manchester, a subsidiary of Turnbull \u0026amp; Stockdale which had manufactured textiles since 1881: the company wanted overalls for their staff. One of the overalls is sometimes on display in the Persephone bookshop. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e'Dahlias' by Dora Carrington (1893-1932), undated.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elizabeth Myers","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":39879152205891,"sku":"PB 143","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":39879152238659,"sku":"PB 143","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":39879152271427,"sku":"PB 143","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":39879152304195,"sku":"PB 143","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/products\/fabricforPBno143AWellFullofLeaves.jpg?v=1650461258"},{"product_id":"out-of-the-window","title":"Out of the Window","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-caption alignright\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/31968756-9680-4b9b-a5b6-7a0cc81fe50d_465x279_bf2ecff3-1b0e-47ee-b69c-8a350cb58e6b_480x480.jpg?v=1697227904\" alt=\"Madeline Linford with her colleagues at the Manchester Guardian.\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/31968756-9680-4b9b-a5b6-7a0cc81fe50d_465x279_bf2ecff3-1b0e-47ee-b69c-8a350cb58e6b_480x480.jpg?v=1697227904\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePREFACE BY MICHAEL HERBERT\u003cbr\u003e284pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263389\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOut of the Window\u003c\/strong\u003e is a quietly radical 1930 novel about sexual attraction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt begins when Ursula, the indulged daughter of an affluent middle-class doctor living in a village in Cheshire, attends a neighbour’s party. There she meets Kenneth, an engineer from Manchester, who is raising money for the wives and children of local miners striking for better working conditions; he is ‘absurdly good looking… the other men in the room seemed limp and colourless beside him.’ The two of them marry against their parents’ wishes but, when they return from honeymoon, they soon realise that marriage does not only involve love, but also housework. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOut of the Window\u003c\/strong\u003e is full of revealing detail about Manchester in the 1920s, not least social inequality and the role of the trade unions; it is about women’s lives not long before the watershed of WWII; and it is also steeped in what we at Persephone Books call ‘Domestic Feminism’. The main theme, however – and it is no coincidence that \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOut of the Window\u003c\/strong\u003e was written the year after \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLady Chatterley’s Lover\u003c\/em\u003e was \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003enot\u003c\/em\u003e published – is whether sexual attraction is a sensible basis for marriage. As Ursula observes a few months after her wedding, “You know, there ought to be some other solution for girls in love. It isn’t fair that they should be tied all their lives and have children, just because they once felt passionate about some man and were blind to everything else. The marriage service should be postponed until they had lived together for a while and the glamorous side of it had got less.” Hear, hear, we shout from the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe author of \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOut of the Window\u003c\/strong\u003e, Madeline Linford, was the first editor of the \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e’s or, as it was then, the \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eManchester\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e’s Women’s Page. She joined the paper in 1913 when she was 18 and a decade later was appointed an editor. Yet somehow, in addition to her journalism, she also found time to write five novels, including \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOut of the Window.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA roller printed cretonne designed by Constance Irving (1879-1964) for William Foxton Ltd in the late 1920s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMadeline Linford with her colleagues at the \u003cem\u003eManchester Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Madeline Linford","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":40610602352707,"sku":"PB 148","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":40610602385475,"sku":"PB 148","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":40610602418243,"sku":"PB 148","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":40610602451011,"sku":"PB 148","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/OutoftheWindowendpaper.png?v=1694432142"},{"product_id":"hop-step-and-jump","title":"Hop, Step and Jump","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/wmfTTdJCxJfyQYsSn9PiuPhJiCR-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg?v=1753278727\"\u003ePREFACE BY ROWAN PELLING\u003cbr\u003e261pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263433\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Persephone Books edition of much-loved bestseller \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/miss-pettigrew-lives-for-a-day\" href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/miss-pettigrew-lives-for-a-day\"\u003eMiss Pettigrew Lives for a Day\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eby Winifred Watson\u003cstrong\u003e, \u003c\/strong\u003ewe are pleased to publish another neglected novel by the same author, \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHop, Step and Jump\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 40px;\"\u003eIn the beginning, the love story of Jenny Dennet and Bert Murray ran the appointed course of all similar love stories in their neighbourhood. It differed in the end because Jenny had character as well as charm and Bert had only charm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJenny wants more. Much more. Born into poverty in a small industrial town in the north of England, she is determined to find a way out. After taking up with a handsome rotter named Bert who works in the same factory as her, it’s not long before she gives in to his pleas to marry him. But he turns out to be a drunk and a philanderer with an occasional propensity to violence and she soon walks out on him (the ‘hop’ of the title). ‘You can’t leave me. Where’ll you go?' asks Bert. ‘I’ve got my hands an’ I’ve got my brains and I can work,’ Jenny replies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSure enough, Jenny quickly gets a job as a housemaid. She falls into an affair with her employer’s son, Hugh (the ‘step’), but, finding herself both morally compromised and – even worse – bored, she borrows some money from him to open a bakery (the ‘jump’). But will running her own business be enough to fulfill her? And what about love? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis spirited tale of upward mobility, written in Winifred Watson’s distinctively direct style, was first published in 1939 in the same week as the outbreak of war. The \u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e described it as ‘unusual and entertaining’; ‘subtle and romantic’ was L P Hartley’s verdict in the \u003cem\u003eObserver \u003c\/em\u003eand,\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eaccording to the \u003cem\u003eSketch\u003c\/em\u003e, ‘Without being hard, Miss Winifred Watson is a matter-of-fact writer and endows her heroine with these qualities. She reminds one a little of Arnold Bennett.’ Certainly, there is an explicitness in \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHop, Step and Jump\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e that in some ways makes it more akin to a realist novel. For example, the impoverished surroundings in which Jenny and her husband Bert have to live are described in great detail, as is the way they are virtually imprisoned because of their circumstances. The novel is brutal at times and doesn’t gloss over squalor or poverty. Yet at the same time, it is extremely entertaining and flows along like the best kind of light fiction.\u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003eSo \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHop, Step and Jump\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e should be read on several levels. It is a very good read in the romantic novel tradition; it dissects moral values and makes the reader think hard about what is involved in Jenny’s search for freedom and love; and it is fascinating about an ordinary working class woman’s life in 1930s England. As Rowan Pelling writes in her Persephone Preface: ‘What elevates the story is the odyssey through Britain’s social classes, the candidness about sex, and the exploration of female self-determination.’ A seemingly light novel turns out to be curiously radical.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpapers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe endpapers for \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHop, Step and Jump\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e are ‘Stanford’, a hand-screen printed chintz designed in 1937 by Marion Dorn for Donald Brothers, exhibited in 1939 at the British Industries Fair © Marion Dorn \/ Victoria and Albert Museum, London. We chose ‘Stanford’ for a number of reasons. It is by the same designer as the endpaper for \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/miss-pettigrew-lives-for-a-day\" href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/miss-pettigrew-lives-for-a-day\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eMiss Pettigrew Lives for a Day\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e; the brown and yellow work well for a novel set in a northern industrial town where life is tough i.e. it’s not overly pretty or jolly; and the sheaves of wheat in the design recall Jenny's bakery and thus her freedom and independence. Lastly, there is a sentence on p.207 of the book describing Jenny's 'room of one's own' after her friends kindly redecorate it for her: ‘A new easy chair, together with her old one, were both draped in loose cretonne covers of a soft brown background, patterned in dull golds and yellows and sepias and paler browns. New curtains, of the same material, had been hung at the windows.’ Which does seem to describe 'Stanford' almost exactly, doesn't it? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMovie stars Hedy Lamarr and Charles Boyer, 1938.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Winifred Watson","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":55450276757890,"sku":"PB 153","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":55450276790658,"sku":"PB 153","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":55450276823426,"sku":"PB 153","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":55450276856194,"sku":"PB 153","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/153-endpaper-square.jpg?v=1757691192"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/collections\/8524669030_6d55fe75fb_c.jpg?v=1720526934","url":"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/collections\/grey-books-north-of-england.oembed","provider":"Persephone Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}