A lovely bookshop that I haven’t visited!
Before the pandemic and the lockdowns I was working out a bookshop walk in London. There was going to be time for a walk in the park and several vital stops for coffee and pastries and maybe even tea and cake. There were plenty of quite historic bookshops en route as well as some unusual and quirky ones that I’d read about. However, because travelling abruptly stopped this fun day out never happened … it still hasn’t by the way.
But, looking around online at bookshops as I sometimes do, I realised that one particular gem had moved when I wasn’t looking.
Persephone Books was in a pretty cobbled street in London near Great Ormond Street Hospital and then it decided to upsticks, or upbooks, and relocate to Bath. Maybe their lease was up or maybe they fancied a change of scene. I really don’t know, but there they now are.
This bookshop focuses on reprints of books, mainly but not solely by women writers of the early and mid-20th century. The books themselves are beautiful: pale grey hardbacks with gorgeous endpapers. Reading up about them I see that the shop sometimes has special events: films with tea and cake. Jane Austen would be sighing with delight.
And why Persephone I hear you ask. Well, traditionally she is considered to be a symbol of female creativity and of new beginnings, particularly the spring. It’s all in the Greek myth … Persephone and her mother Demeter.
I am almost ready to buy a train ticket …