‘We are all a bundle of nerves over here [writes a reader in California] with the midterm elections. I have never seen the LA community gather and campaign like this before. I pray Wednesday morning there will be something to be cheerful about, it’s been a long time.’ It has indeed. As it has in the UK. A man came into the shop, saw the newly-in Ladybird The Story of Brexit, guessed where its sympathies lie and snorted, ‘I’m not staying here’ and went out. It was funny but also desperately sad. So this week on the Post some soothing paintings, in the form of the Impressionists newly opened at the National Gallery and lent by the Courtauld (which Persephone Books supports in a very small way). Ironically, the Impressionists weren’t viewed as soothing at the time! This is Edouard Manet Banks of the Seine at Argenteuil 1874. On long-term loan to The Courtauld Gallery from a private collection © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London