Despised and Rejected by Rose Allatini (18901980) is everything we would like a Persephone book to be: by a forgotten writer who deserves to be revived and with strong themes: opposition to war, acceptance of homosexuality, tolerance of others, awareness that ‘it is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple, one must be woman-manly or man- womanly’ (A Room of One’s Own). And it is a very well written novel, and a page-turner.

By a forgotten writer who deserves to be revived, Despised and Rejected has a number of strong themes: opposition to war, acceptance of homosexuality, tolerance of others, awareness that 'it is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple, one must be woman-manly or man-womanly' (Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own). It is also a very well-written novel, and a page-turner. The book begins deceptively as light social comedy (one reason it is not better known): in July 1914 a family gathers a...

In the year leading up to the First World War, four people’s lives intertwine, only to be pulled apart. A landmark of gay and pacifist literature, Rose Allatini’s story foregrounding conscientious objectors and queer love amidst wartime turmoil was banned months after its publication.At a countryside hotel, guests watch an amateur play. One of the actors, Antoinette de Courcy, is infatuated with Hester Cawthorn, a reserved and alluring woman. Dennis Blackwood, a gi...