Persephone secret santa

I mentioned a while ago here that my friend Claire from Paperback Reader was organising this year's Persephone Secret Santa. I wasn't able to participate myself so was very surprised when I recieved a package from the shop in the post! (I found out at lunchtime the other week when I was asking my fiance if I'd had any post, and he told me about the package, which led to a certain amount of confusion and worry on my part - I was /sure/ that I hadn't ordered anything from them!). It turned out that the extremely kind Frances from Nonsuch book had included me, saying:

"When I saw that you were not taking part in the Persephone Secret Santa, I asked Claire for your address. You not participating just seemed wrong! :) Hope you do not have this one. Merry Christmas!"

I was hugely touched by this kindness, especially as I now have one of the new books - The mystery of Blencarrow by Mrs Oliphant, which I think will be perfect Christmas reading. And, it was the first time that I've ever recieved anything giftwrapped from the shop - as you can see in the picture, I can't bear to unwrap it, so it is adorning our Christmas tree. I could tell what it was from the bookmark included.

The other Persephone related news is that Claire and I will be hosting a Persephone Reading Weekend at the end of February; the whole week was fun, but a little exhausting for the both of us, so we are limiting ourselves to a weekend this time. It'll be the same format as the previous reading weeks - you can read as many Persephone books as you like, post reviews and Persephone related posts, and we'll have a couple of quizzes and hopefully some prizes for our favourite posts. As I finished reading my way through the Persephone 90 (or rather 87 as it was then), with the exception of the Mrs Oliphant which I am going to savour over Christmas, during the last reading week, I am looking forward to rereading some of my favourites this time around.