Archives: Persephone Post

‘Middlemist’s Red’ was originally brought to Britain from China in 1804 by Londoner John Middlemist, a nurseryman from Shepherds Bush. It is believed to have been presented by one of his descendants to Chiswick sometime after 1823 as the Sixth Duke added to his growing collection of camellias. Despite its name, the plant blooms a deep pink and is normally in full bloom during the months of February and March. The only other known plant of this variety is at the Treaty House, Waitangi, New Zealand.

It’s camellias on the post this week, inspired by the forthcoming Camellia Show at Chiswick House  – and because of La Dame aux Camélias and La Traviata. First, as a foretaste of the camellias that will be at Chiswick, a Chinese painting which is at the Lindley Library (the pigment of which is discussed here).

The fabric used for Farewell Leicester Square, written in 1935 but not published until 1941, is by another amazing woman – EQ Nicholson.  The black goose has overtones of the black sheep, and the blue is particularly beautiful. We sell the fabric, which is made nowadays by Borderlinec, in the shop.

By 1935 Betty Miller was well-known enough to be photographed by the great photographer Bassano Ltd – this photograph is now at the National Portrait Gallery. We are lobbying hard for an exhibition of photographs of women writers. One day…

From 1920 University College London offered a diploma on journalism that was designed for newly unemployed soldiers who had returned from the Front. Both Elizabeth Bowen and later Betty Miller were enrolled on the course. Here is BM’s ‘end of year report’ from the UCL archive, revealing of her sense of humour (“running to lectures when late”) and her writing ambition; interestingly she was intent on being a critic, not a novelist.

In 1952, after writing seven novels and a dozen or so short stories, Betty Miller’s biography Robert Browning: A Portrait became a bestseller. Here she is, inbetween Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, on the cover of the journal Saturday Review.  The interview inside reveals that her American publisher wanted to use the more scholarly-seeming name Elizabeth Miller to promote the book. She refused.

Betty Miller (1910-65), author of Persephone book no. 14 Farewell Leicester Square, is the subject of this week’s post. Eighty years ago this spring her third novel, Portrait of the Bride (1935), was printed and wrapped in the iconic yellow jacket of Victor Gollancz. In the 1930s Gollancz also published the novels of Susan Glaspell, Joanna Cannan, RC Sherriff, Elizabeth Jenkins and Lettice Cooper as well as books by Daphne du Maurier, Claire Leighton and Vera Brittain.

Sicilian Avenue in 1925: such an evocative and marvellous photograph.

The St Pancras Travelling Library 1941, Civil Defence personnel: a slightly odd photograph as all the men look slightly posed as they pore over their books. Perhaps this picture was for a poster which might have said something like ‘make do and read’ or ‘read for victory’ or ‘your country needs you’ (to read); or perhaps it was just a civil defence promotion (while waiting for an air-raid you’ll have time to read a book). At the beginning of The Village it is clear that during the long years of being at their post together the two women did indeed have time for novels, knitting and chatting.