The shop!

I finally paid my first visit to the Persephone shop in London. Due to travel complications, family parties, etc., it was a rather rushed visit, but still oh-so-worth it! I was going to have my boyfriend take a picture of me standing outside (with full shopping bag) to make all my friends envious. But a lot of people were sitting outside at the cafe next door, and I chickened out. Silly me. It would have been a great photo!

Who else has been? What did you think?

I've been, and I've sat in the cafe next door looking intimidatingly out at passersby. I only bought two books on my visit: Saplings and The Fortnight in September. I felt like a character in a novel myself, walking out from my hotel in Bloomsbury and shopping for books in Lamb's Conduit Street before spending the morning at the British Museum. I almost felt drops of ink from Virginia Woolf's pen falling onto my head as I walked along Great Ormond Street—but it was only the rain. What a lark!

I made my maiden voyage there in February this year with the friend that introduced me to Persephone. It was a typical rainy, February English day; the skies were the same colour as the books' dust jackets but the shop front was illuminated by some resilient, radiant daffodils. I did take a couple of photos for posterity. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit and afterwards hurried off to Liberty's for lunch where we indulged ourselves further by coveting our purchases!

Next question: what did you buy there? I snaffled The Hopkins Manuscript for my husband, Kitchen Essays for my mum, and for myself I greedily grabbed The making of a Marchioness, How to Run Your Home Without Help, Tea with Mr Rochester and The Carlyles at Home.

All I can say so far is that.....I AM UTTERLY ENVIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An to think that I was staying near the shop, when on vacation in London two years ago, and did not even know it existed! Now, what do you call that?

Oh Paola, that is what I would call a crying shame. Isn't it an excuse to 'book' another holiday?

fabrile-heart, I bought The Shuttle, House-Bound and Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary. I have another long train ride tomorrow (to Cornwall), so will get started on reading!

Hi miss_read

Great purchases. I am saving The Shuttle for my holiday in August. I'm in the middle of House-Bound and I think it's delightful. It's a topic close to my heart. What a lovely train journey you will have, enjoy your reading!

Louise

Louise, you are right indeed!
Louise and miss_read, I have read The Shuttle (although not in Persephone edition) and loved it.
I hope you will wnjoy it as much as I did.

Paola

Having never gotten to London, I have never visited the shop (but I did force a friend to go when she was over there).

I made my first visit to the shop when I was back in England on holiday, after I had moved to the US. I was like a child in a toy store - I think I bought 6 books while my husband waited patiently in the cafe next door. I joined him for coffee, then went back to Persephone and bought a book bag!