Lucky dogs

I've been incredibly busy  and didn't even take the unlucky dog out, again.
I've barely picked up the camera but I did take a few shots of a book I've been reading: 'Twixt Land and Sea Tales, by Joseph Conrad consisting of three of his long short stories about seafaring life.

It's a wartime Penguin edition dated 1943 and printed on flimsy paper. The adverts tell their own story of the period. There are puffs for Mars Bars and Cadbury's chocolate - rapid energy boosters at a time when sugar was rationed and no one dreamt about the problem of excess consumption.

A pair of spaniels rejoice in their good fortune at being owned by "masters" who are established customers of Chappie dog food. Supplies are too short for anyone else to buy it until the war is over. Below the ad is a reminder that even discarded dog bones should be saved for salvage, "vital to the war effort".

Another page is devoted to The Prisoners of War Book Service, a scheme whereby the publishers, on payment of a sum of money, will undertake to send an assortment of Penguin books to individual POWS. This immediately brought to my mind the British government's new policy, announced by Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, of banning books and anything else being sent to prisoners in jail. Obviously there's little in common between prisoners of war and people locked up for crimes, apart from the fact that both are deprived of their liberty. Although prisoners can still access literature in prison libraries it seems senseless to cut off the possibility for them also to receive book parcels from outside. It means reducing their opportunities to become literate, to read, to learn, to think and to develop in ways that may protect them from falling back into crime, or simply to distract themselves from the iniquities of prison life.

78 major British literary figures have spoken out against the policy and 20,000 people have signed a petition. Please add your name if you also feel strongly about this issue.