Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

[sovay]

Claude Choules, last known combat veteran of the first world war.

I finished reading Pat Barker's The Ghost Road (1995) yesterday. It is less of a novel than its predecessors, Regeneration (1991) and The Eye in the Door (1993); what it is, it becomes clear only in the last few pages, is a ritual, a sending-on, an exorcism. There was a need for it. I was reading about events still tied by memory to the living world.

They have gone on now.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

They have gone on now.

It was inevitable, but I don't like it one bit.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Only Florence Green still living, her contributions disputed, also 110. *sighs*

As an inappropriate public service announcement, Traditional Medicinals' Breathe Easy tea is... um... it's...

Hwark.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

Sebastien Japrisot's A Very Long Engagement is close kin to the Barker trilogy.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Someday no one will march there at all...

I grieve.

Nine

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

I loved Pat Barker's trilogy, even (or perhaps especially) when it was grim going. I read it in 2004, when our present wars were new, and it resonated with me so much.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Claude Choules, last known combat veteran of the first world war.

May he rest in peace.

Thank you for sharing the news.