Afternoon Tea with Persephone Books

Thursday 29 May, 2:30pm, Cathedral Quarter Hotel, DE1 3JR

Kindly sponsored by Smith Partnership.

Persephone Books events were a regular feature of our Festival before lockdown and we are delighted to have a return visit for our 10th anniversary.  We know there are many Persephone fans in the area, but if you haven’t discovered the joy of their books yet, you are missing many treats.  

Persephone Books reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women writers and mostly dating from the mid-twentieth century with its first title published in 1999.  All of their 151 titles are intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written. They also publish short stories, diaries, memoirs, poetry, gardening books and cookery books; each title has an elegant grey jacket and a patterned endpaper, along with a matching bookmark. The name Persephone was chosen as a symbol of female creativity, as well as of new beginnings (the daughter of Zeus is associated with spring).

Francesca Beauman, daughter of founder Nicola and now the Managing Director, joins us to talk about some of their most recent publications as well as about their history, including a move for their bookshop from London to Bath in 2021.