In 1949 Edward Bawden did the drawings for a ‘King Penguin’ called Life in an English Village. Naturally the illustrations show life in Great Bardfield. This is the vicar writing his sermon; there are more pictures on this blog. Looking at Bawden’s illustrations inspire a re-reading of The Village (1952), with its astonishing ending. (Marghanita Laski had a special gift for endings, each one of the four novels we have in print has one that is amazing and stunning. So many novels just peter out but not Laski’s.)