The last stop of the 6 week European leg was poppy hunting in the Somme area. My client had said that they weren’t that interested in ‘Poppy’ pictures, wreaths and the like, as that was more what the British Legion was about. OK , fine. But I wanted a poppy picture, I wanted a field of poppies with a cross of sacrifice in the background. Piece of cake, everyone knows that the battlefields of northern France are filled with poppies, don’t they !

Ahem, not the week before the 90th anniversary of the battle of the Somme. The French authorities in their infinite wisdom had cut back the grass verges throughout the entire Somme area, security, neatness, who knows, but that is where the poppies were in abundance. My heart sank as I drove around looking for a poppy, for a second I even thought of buying some silk flowers, just for a second.


Arras Memorial and Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery.

The next morning I looked out of my hotel window and it was if someone had poured their entire red paint pallet onto a nearby field right next to the CWGC cemetery at Rancourt. I dashed around like a photographer possessed, making dozens, hundreds of images of poppies and the Cross of Sacrifice, fearful that at any moment some giant poppy cutting machine would come and do for them.

I had the cover for the book.

The Middle East was next. Malta, Crete and Egypt. Malta was hard. The landscape is hard, the light likewise. Crete was one location at Suda Bay. In Egypt I had a member of the Commission staff in Michel Menoir, who works in the accounts section, as my driver , fixer and friend. We managed to cover Alex and El Alamein in three days. Which is far quicker that even Monty or the Desert Fox could have hoped for.


El Alamein War Cemetery, Egypt.

El Alamein is quite spooky at dusk. The sand dust creates a mist which forms a veil as the sun sets. The desert plantings would catch the last rays of the setting sun and that is where my images were. Cairo and Suez followed with a side trip to the Pyramids and the Egyptian Museum. It was all so fast, Crete was becoming Malta becoming Suez. I was tired and confused.


Kranji Cemetery, Singapore.

Home for some R&R and post production. I was shooting film so there was an inordinate amount of scanning to do.

No sooner was I home then I was sent off on the next leg. Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, all within 10 days. In Singapore I met up with my friend ex-Indy staffer John Voos who is now with Reuters as a Global Picture editor ( now back in London ). I wanted to catch the early morning light so I slept in my Mercedes taxi waiting for the dawn to photograph Kranji cemetery. Thailand and the two cemeteries at the Kwai crossing followed. Hong Kong was busy.