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Persephone Books
by daisy0
I came across the Persephone Books website www.persephonebooks.co.uk by chance when I was researching book publishers websites. Before this I knew nothing about Persephone Books as I had never heard of them before. Out of curiosity I browsed their website and found it to be very interesting.
They reprint books written ... mainly by 20th Century female writers that have been forgotten or neglected.They currently have a collection of 96 books, each book has been chosen by Persephone because it is thought provoking and well written.These books will be of interest to readers who enjoy, nostalgia,vintage, true life and Social history
Their books include ;
Novels
Short Stories
Cookery
Diaries
Authors include;
Monica Dickens
Dorothy Whipple
Elizabeth Cambridge
Emma Smith
While browsing their website I noticed a section at the bottom of the homepage where you could subscribe to their newsletter, so I signed up. All subscribers are sent a lovely coloured catalogue containing detailed information about their books, a vintage fabric designed bookmark, and a free copy of their Biannually magazine , also containing beautiful artwork and information.I got my copy through the post a few days after I applied.
The website is an interactive site for fans of Persephone, with a blog and a forum where members can ;
Comment
Write reviews
Order books
Listen to Audio clips from books
Get the address of the Persephone shop in London
Get news of any events being held
The books are designed with a Dove Grey jacket and the endpapers are printed in lovely Vintage fabric designs , you also get a bookmark to match.I have not yet ordered any books from them because at the moment I am still reading through the catalogue so that I can decide which ones to buy.The trouble is they all look good and I just want to own them all!
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WH Smith
by xxBeccaxx
I never understood the fascination with WHSmith myself. When I was at school I was one of those geeky kids who had tons of stationary, always had a zillion pens and was forever updating my pencil case with whatever I had purchased with my pocket money (I know completely sad but you know). Also being one of these people who is generally ... pretty careful with money (considering I never had a lot when I was spending) each purchase was thought out rationally. This review will only be focusing on my local store as although I have visited others I haven't been for a long time and also it has only been a couple of experiences so not really enough to base an opinion on. It has only been more recently that I have been looking at this store in particular as my university course requires me to purchase textbooks and in trying to get the best price I always check all retailers to see how the prices compare.
My local store (Falkirk) is very easily accessible. It is slap bang in the middle of the high street with a large royal blue sign detailing the name 'WH Smith' in large white lettering. It is very simple and not very outstanding at all. It doesn't give any sort of indication as to what is sold but it is such a well known name that majority of people are aware of what they sell.
There are normally some posters in the window detailing their 'special deals' which to me never seem to be very good, they are generally about books but come summer time they normally have various pens, pencils etc advertised for the upcoming school year.
On entering the store it is clean enough, the staff are not particularly friendly but not rude either, a smile would be nice but it's not the end of the world. The shelves aren't as well laid out as I would like either. Everything just seems to be put anywhere, no particular order. I also don't particularly like how the shelves are length ways and set at strange angles, when I had my son in the buggy it was rather difficult to navigate around. I also found that in another couple of the stores I visited so I presume this is not just a singular store setting.
They have a range of products, magazines, stationery, craft materials, books and textbooks, drinks, snacks, sandwiches, tabacco products along with little gifts and trinkets. Although there would seem to be a large selection there is particularly a large of any 1 product. You seem to be limited to just own brand (which is particularly cheap) or a high end brand such as Stabilo, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground.
Another thing which ultimately has to mentioned is the prices, some of them are just off the scale in terms of value. For something such as a daily diary own brand they are charging £8.99. Even in the sale the other day (we're in August) they are still trying to sell them for £5!! It's ludicrous.
WH Smith state their goal as:
'To be Britain's most popular bookseller, stationer and newsagent.'
To be honest I do see it as a glorified newsagent. There is nothing particularly good about this store, even for the prices you would expect a high standard and range of goods that are good quality, fair enough the higher end brands are decent and durable quality but they can be purchased much cheaper elsewhere. The range of snacks on offer are a lot higher in price than many other stores available. I would much rather walk 30 seconds down the street and pay 24p less for a carton of juice (whether that is cheap of me or not is beside the point).
They do provide a pretty good array of books and textbooks but again the price lets them down. Even having to pay a delivery charge it has always worked out cheaper for me to purchase them online and have them delivered to my door than make the effort to go instore.
In conclusion if you have no other option then it's not a bad place to shop but there are much better, cheaper and friendlier stores out there. I'm not actually sure how they are still open on such a large scale as the shop never seems to be busy or have more than 2 ot 3 people in at a time despite it being a fairly average sized shop.
Not somewhere I would recommend unless you are stuck for choice or have a healthy budget.
*Thankyou for reading, may also be posted on Ciao under the same username*
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