Last Diary

The final journal of British naturalist Bruce Frederick Cummings, spanning from March 1918 to June 1919. The diary follows on the heels of the publication of Cummings' edited collection of journal entries The Journal of a Disappointed Man, which had been received to some success. This slimmer volume contains Cummings' reflections upon the end of WWI, bittersweet reflections marked as they are by the self-knowledge that as that as a new era of peace was being ushered in across Europe, Cummings' own health was failing him. Despite his body succumbing to multiple sclerosis, Cummings remains emotionally and intellectually lucid to the last, making for both a lively historical document, but also a moving and lyrical piece of autobiography. - Summary by Adam Whybray