LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER is inspired by a statue that stands on Platform 1 of Paddington Station in London, representing all the millions of soldiers who died – a statue of an ordinary soldier in battle dress, reading a letter. In a centenary year already jammed-full of WW1 commemorations, from tv dramas and documentaries to politician’s speeches and memorial ceremonies, we are inviting everyone to step back from these public offering and take a few private moments to think: if you could say what you want to say about that war, with all we’ve learned since 1914, with all your own experience of life and death to hand, what would you say? If you were now able to write to the unknown soldier, a man who served and was killed during World War One, what would you write? We’re inviting everyone to contribute to the project by writing that letter. All the letters will be collected and published online, alongside those we’ve already received from writers including Stephen Fry Andrew Motion, Kamila Shamsie, Owen Jones, Lee Child, Malorie Blackman and Sheila Hancock among many others. Please add your voice, and help us create a new kind of war memorial, a new kind of public artwork – one made entirely of words. Kate Pullinger and Neil Bartlett
