Aged54, and with a small inheritance from her father, the writer Nicola Beauman decided to launch a business.
It would be called Persephone, after the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, symbol of female creativity. She would republish books by neglected authors, mainly women, from the mid-20th century, packaged in elegant, understated, dovegrey dust jackets, and sell them by mail order.
Unfashionable authors? Understated dust jackets? Books to covet and cherish in an increasingly throwaway society? How could she possibly succeed? If I’d been her friend, I’d have counselled against it. I would have been so wrong.