My mother was born in 1932 and from the age of seven to 13 had a pretty bad time as various armies drove around the world.

Then came the post-war years, rationing and rebuilding. My mother was having none of that.

She left home at 16, had a bloody good time (in at the start of rock 'n' roll), had three children and enjoyed, at times, a rewarding career in nursing.

Now retired, she lives in the country, reads a lot, gardens a little and loves her crosswords.

She sounds like a right Florence Nightingale but, let me assure you, she is not. So what, you may ask, has this got to do with anything? Well, everything, really.

Since the first thoroughly modern world war (the Great War was a horrifying mishmash of imperialism and modernism), there have been numerous and bloody conflicts all over the globe and they have all succeeded in doing only one thing, driving wedges between people - large-scale demolition, really.

And these people are often people who either had no voice in the first place or were simply ignored. Sound familiar?

-Steve Charlton, Wilbury Road, Hove