A Monkey's Revenge - My Blog

Nov 13, 2011

Poppy field

In a way thats weirdly appropriate, my photo of a poppy field has sold as stock again this week. Today is Remembrance Sunday and this week I've been remembering my great grandfather, Walter Atheline Hurdman, who fought in the trenches during world war 1. Walter died when I was just seven, but I do remember him as a quiet chap who everybody respected.

The poppy field in question is not in Flanders fields however, but New York. That's New York in Lincolnshire, not America. The bike belonged to Richard Boston, a writer with The Guardian now also gone, but also fondly remembered.He was an eccentric who loved a joke and was very good company. I photographed him as he travelled through the flatlands of Lincolnshire for a Guardian travel piece. If my memory serves me right, this photo didn't get used and The Guardian used instead a shot of him glugging a bottle of coca cola outside the 'New York Stores', his trusty bike parked up against the sunlit wall.