William an Englishmen

Ahhhh, my very first Persephone book!
I've been really slow on the uptake of these beauties, obviously I'd heard of them but I never had a chance to have a proper look at them and appreciate just how gorgeous they really were!
I was also quite happy with making the viragos my main collection of works by women.
Luckily this changed when a nice new bookshop opened in the city called The Bookhive. If you ever come to Norwich this shop on Bank Plain is a must!
Upstairs is the fiction section and there's a whole shelf dedicated to Persephones.
So wanting to support a local retailer I decided that now was the time to give this series a go that I've heard so many wonderful things about on other blogs.
The geek in me also thought that when there's a numbered series you have to start at número Uno. This plan has led me to some hard times in the past, I did this with the vmc's and it was lovely until I hit Pilgrimage by Dorothy Richardson. Not just one bloody long and hard to read book but a set of four!
The feeling of failure has never really left me since I couldn't get any further than halfway through book 2.
This book is slightly hard to categorise in some ways and I also feel that Persephone do a great job description wise so don't be too offended if I send you over there to have a gander and maybe pick yourself up a copy whilst your at it.
Cicely Hamilton is a very wry writer in my opinion, all the time in the beginning of the book she is inviting you to laugh at the characters she has created and their own narrow view of the world.
It works aswel, and you get the impression of two very ordinary people who think they know everything in their own little realm.
In a way they reminded me of myself as a teenager, all full of good intentions about wanting to Change the world as it is and not seeing why others can't see the mistakes that they're making in my eyes.
And this is kinda what the story is about, the stripping of ones beliefs one by one in the most horrific way.
Obviously my teens weren't that bad but I think you get the gist of what I'm trying to say.
Then newly weds whilst on their honeymoon encounter the first world war in all it's horror.
I'm not going to give to much away as this part of the book is a must read, being told all the time with a very taunt hand.
The story is told a very quiet manner,it's not written as a thriller yet the implications of what's happening seep in to you slowly filling you with dread, and make you want to scream at the characters to run as you know what's going to happen like when your watching a horror movie and someone says let's split up.
A lot of what's said in this book is by what's left out and I personally love this as your imagination takes hold and fills in the blanks.
This isn't a happy book, yet it is a powerful book that will leave you thinking about it after you put it down.
I feel that this was a great start to my reading of the Persephone's and I've already bought Mariana to read when I've finished my first reading list and the back catalogue of library books that I have at the mo.
As for the recipe I cooked for this book I'll give you a small clue and say that it's a Nigella and was at once both homely and decadent.