Stars for the fallen

Santolina, also known as cotton lavender, a small evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean, seems happy enough in our very unmediterranean climate. The picture looks almost monochrome but isn't. It's simply been dark all day.

Listening to Remembrance Sunday on Radio 4 today, I was thinking of friends who have died or been 'disappeared' while reporting on conflict. How brave they were to do the work they did and, like the soldiers whose lives were being honoured today, they all died far too young. As if by telepathy, another friend sent me a link to the work of Alvaro Ybarra Zavala, a young Spanish war photographer. His pictures, shocking and powerful, are essential viewing. Yes, I showed them to my kids.

We must not forget.


large