And the second reason we are celebrating Susie Cooper is a more tangential one: last week we launched The Persephone Box Set (details here) and we hope that six Persephone books will look just as stylish in their brown cardboard box as these six coffee cups – which will be, in their original box, in the shop window; the only difference being that Persephone books will be a great read – for ever – whereas (in a way that our mothers and grandmothers could never have anticipated) coffee cups and tea sets are now almost redundant domestic items. Yes, occasionally we give our friends coffee (or peppermint tea) after dinner and yes it is fun to have a beautiful matching set. But no young couple would nowadays be given, or long for, sets of cups and saucers. Which is why Susie Cooper’s work is not better known. Nowadays it’s all mugs, mugs and mugs (indeed we sell five different kinds in the shop: Annabel Munn‘s (a collector’s item), Nicholas Mosse‘s Old Rose pattern, Emma Bridgewater‘s Pomegranate, Brixton Pottery‘s Blue Diamond mugs (two sizes) and the Jansen Espresso cups – naturally in grey.