Three songs are closest to my feelings on the day: Eric Bogle's "The gift of years" and "The band played..." and Robb Johnson's "When Harry took me to Ypres".

On Friday morning, listening to Andrew Motion being interviewed, someone (I think it was AM himself) mentioned an expression that struck a cord: "the bittersweet silence" - referring to the two minutes' silence as a mark of respect. It stuck in the head, and today, bit by bit, gave birth to the following, which encapsulates all my thinking on the subject: