We took a copy of Life in an English Village with us on the Great Bardfield outing since of course it is illustrated by Edward Bawden’s lithographs drawn in the village. There is a piece about the book here which is interesting; however, it says: ‘In the middle-class sitting room of “Sunday Evening” the boredom is palpable. Two women resign themselves to reading while the man smokes his pipe by the hearth. Sporting prints and taxidermy trophies suggest an active life, but the clock reads 5:40 and it looks like it will be a long evening.’ This is entirely a matter of opinion! To some of us the two women look as though they have stepped straight out of a novel by one of ‘our’ writers. Are they sisters? Is one of them married to the man with the pipe? Is one the village schoolteacher? Surely they are self-conscious (being drawn by Bawden) rather than bored. Well, there may be a new edition of Life in an English Village soon and it will tell us!