Books, RattleBag and Rhubarb

A Better Class of Train

The two-forty-five express — Paddington to Market Blandings, first stop Oxford—stood at its piatform with that air of well-bred reserve which is characteristic of Paddington trains, and Pongo Twistleton and Lord Ickenham stood beside it, waiting for Polly Pott. The clock over the bookstall pointed to thirty-eight minutes after the hour. Some train engines are simply superior. But it’s not…

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Art, Film, Photography, Poetry, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW1

Women Artists of WW1: Anna Coleman Ladd

In his series of WW1 epitaphs, Rudyard Kipling comments on the all too common fate of a new soldier at the front who – curious about the enemy – cannot resist taking a look and unwittingly exposes his head to a sniper. The beginner On the first hour of my first day     In the front trench I fell.…

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