I've bought an old second hand copy with a couple of pages missing, but this is a seriously magnificent publication. Some of the cartoons are very funny indeed, others have an element of pathos to them. I must admit that there were a few that I did not really understand - maybe you had to be there, as the saying goes.
These cartoons were produced by a soldier in the trenches of World War I. While the ostensible audience was the folks back home I can't help suspecting that it was the soldiers who would have really appreciated some of these. You can see some of the class differences in these cartoons, which makes it interesting as Bairnsfather was very definitely of the officer class, while most of the heroes in the cartoons are rank and file. Indeed, the officers tend to get the mickey taken out of them somewhat. And some of them are a bit gruesome - unsurprisingly given the subject matter.
Great Stuff.
These cartoons were produced by a soldier in the trenches of World War I. While the ostensible audience was the folks back home I can't help suspecting that it was the soldiers who would have really appreciated some of these. You can see some of the class differences in these cartoons, which makes it interesting as Bairnsfather was very definitely of the officer class, while most of the heroes in the cartoons are rank and file. Indeed, the officers tend to get the mickey taken out of them somewhat. And some of them are a bit gruesome - unsurprisingly given the subject matter.
Great Stuff.
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