The Making of Persephone Books: Virtual Conversation with Founder Nicola Beauman

Virtual Conversation: A Bookstore of One’s Own: The Making of Persephone Books
Nicola Beauman in conversation with Mary Warnement

As bookstores around the world face declining sales, mergers, and even closures, one small, London-based publisher-bookstore has managed to thrive while dealing in an unexpectedly niche category: out-of-print books by women writers. Persephone Books—named after the Greek goddess as a symbol of creativity—started out as a small mail-order publishing business but ballooned into its current cult status after Persephone Book No. 21, Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson, became a word-of-mouth bestseller and, later on, adapted into a film starring Frances McDormand as Miss Pettigrew. Today, Persephone Books has a devoted and passionate following that continues to grow alongside the publisher-bookseller’s exceptional list of reprinted publications. As founder Nicola Beauman puts it, “the connection between [the books] is that they were forgotten and they’re very well written.”

Join us in a virtual conversation with Nicola Beauman to learn more about the origins of her business as well as the books that have made it famous.