Love

Tonight I watched the second, and concluding, part of the screen adaptation of Birdsong - the best book I have ever read.

Because it was something that affected me so emotionally I was incredibly excited about the film and, I wasn't disappointed. I thought it was stunning. However, I was keeping an eye on the Twitter feed for #Birdsong and it certainly divided opinion. There didn't seem to be much of a middle ground - either really liked or really disliked.

Then whilst making my supper, I realised I was holding another thing that actually uses the "love or hate" model as an advertising meme. And it's such a lovely, iconic design and label.

Back to Birdsong. Any book or film about the First World War has an emotional aspect. I've read and read and read about it. I've been to WW1 battlefields and cemeteries (Thiepval, Pozieres, Tyne Cot, Passchendaele, Poelcappelle and others), I've heard the last post sounded at The Menin Gate in Ypres. All of it, without exception, brings a lump to my throat and tonight was no different. As sapper Jack Firebrace whispered his final words to Stephen Wraysford, that lump turned (I'm not embarrassed to say) into a flood of tears...

"There is nothing more sir, than to love, and to be loved".