'No words could express the beauty of it. The dreary dismal mud was baked white and pure - dazzling white. White daisies, red poppies and a blue flower, great masses of them, stretched for miles and miles. The sky a pure, dark blue and the whole air, up to a height of about 40 feet, thick with white butterflies: your clothes were covered with butterflies. It was like an enchanted land, but in the place of fairies were thousands of little white crosses, marked 'Unknown British Soldier' for the most part.'
William Orpen, the war artist describing the Somme 6 months after the battle in 1917
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