I’m so incredibly excited about Persephone Reading Week that I think I’ll need to take the week off work to celebrate it properly.
That was a temptation when I first heard about the event, and I started thinking “themes” and then spotted a collection of films about wartime England at my favourite rental spot and that seems to cinch the deal: what I want in do in Persephone Week won’t leave room for 9-5 toiling.
To begin with, the amount that I want to read is a bit overwhelming, even though I’ve pared it down from “the entire Persephone backlist” to a handful of titles of Second World War fiction, diaries and letters.
My initial instinct was to choose “quintessentially Persephone reads”, which according to my narrow, personal definition is all-things-Stevenson-Watson-Whipple-ish, but I realized that my bookmarks have been too-long-stuck in Vere Hodgson’s Few Eggs and No Oranges and Mollie Panter-Downes’ Good Evening, Mrs. Craven and I do want to make things right with them before moving on once more.
Is it ever a good time to read stories of pain and loss? Perhaps not. (And I have a history of resisting.) It’s hard to read them in inclement weather because it seems to add to the gloom, and it’s hard to read them on the most brilliant days because at last the heart is light and you fully want to enjoy that state.
But, setting that ongoing conflict aside, many of my favourite books have scenes that are harsh and sobering, filled with cruelty and sorrow, and I need to, at least as a reader, soldier on. (Sorry.)
So I’m planning to refresh and continue with Vere Hodgson’s diaries and Mollie Panter-Downes wartime stories and will finish them in Persephone Week, hopefully along with some others.
If you have any suggestions of Persephones that would fit with this mini-theme for Persephone Week, they’re always welcome.
Oh this is so exciting! Thanks for the reminder. I have a few Persephones waiting for me so now I just have to decide which one to read!
Have fun!
I actually posted about Persephone Reading Week plans earlier today but didn’t check my Google Reader until now so missed your post (a very excitable addition to the growing buzz!) I love your idea of themed reading for the week, although a number of the books are set/from the period. I’m planning on reading To Bed With Grand Music by Marghanita Laski, which looks at a woman at home whilst her husband serves in WWII but haven’t finalised my other choices.
I just finished that one at the end of March, Claire, and was lamenting that fact because it certainly would have been a great fit for my theme. I hope you enjoy it!
Can I recommend doreen by Barbara Noble? A charming, and still thought-provoking tale of an evacuee and her “two mothers”. Not the best known persephone but one of my favourites.
Thanks very much for mentioning it: it’s not one that I’ve seen/got on hand, but even if I can’t find a copy for this year’s reading week, I’ll make a point of gathering one up before long.
Wow, talk about advance preparation! You’re very organised! My Persephone reading will consist of whatever unread Persephones I currently have on my shelves, which I think is currently Round About a Pound a Week, House Bound, Miss Buncle’s Book and The Carlyles at Home. An interesting bunch, with no particular unifying theme.
As for you – not all Persephone wartime books are depressing. A House in the Country is lovely and was written during the war – it has an immediacy about it that really makes you understand what it was like to live through it. It’s one of my favourite Persephones. Saplings is also about the war and is very sad but also lovely – highly recommended!
Thanks, Rachel. And yes, I have to be an organized reader because I am a shameless library addict so duedates rule my reading life. I loved Miss Buncle’s Book: one of my favourite reads for last year. And thanks for the wartime recommendations: I’ll make room for at least one of them during the week!