DDASaccident813

The report of this accident is compiled from press reports, edited for anonymity. Text in square brackets [ ] is editorial. In a land mine clearance operation along the China-Vietnam boarder in Yunnan Province, Southwest China on October 11, [the Victim] chose to handle the complex situation by himself after asking his partner to step back. The explosion took [the Victim]\u27s both hands and eyes. The Victim was defusing a mine when the accident occurred. Although no particular mine is mentioned, a Chinese Type 58 anti-personnel blast mine is inferred because it is shown in photographs and a fragmentation mine would have been likely to have inflicted far worse injuries

Wonderful accidents

Everyone’s a critic. While I found Quentin Blake’s pen-and-ink and monochrome wash illustration of Willy Wonka charming—a blend of manic whimsy and wild-eyed threat which is just right for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)—a fellow gallery-goer at the exhibition ‘Picture This: Children’s Illustrated Classics’, currently on show in the Folio Society Gallery at the British Library, loudly pronounced it ‘something you’d find in the New Yorker magazine, not a children’s book’. It is a remark that reflects the proprietorial feelings which children’s literature often induces (not to mention the sense that even if not everyone could write or illustrate a children’s book, then anyone can assess the merits of one)