This morning, film-maker Danny Boyle invited communities around the UK to gather on beaches on Sunday 11 November 2018 to mark the centenary of Armistice and the end of the First World War.
The public is invited to assemble at one of a number of beaches at low-tide. A large scale portrait of a casualty from the First World War will be drawn into the sand at each location and be washed away as the tide comes in. The portraits are designed by Sand In Your Eye. In addition the public will be asked to join in by creating silhouettes of people in the sand, remembering the millions of lives lost or changed forever by the conflict.
Poet Carol Ann Duffy will write a new sonnet, which will be read by individuals, families and communities on the beaches on 11 November.
Boyle said: “Pages of the Sea will be a unique moment, when we’ll say goodbye, together, to the millions of men and women who left their shores during the First World War. Beaches are truly public spaces, where nobody rules other than the tide. They seem the perfect place to gather and say a final goodbye and thank you to those whose lives were taken or affected by the First World War. I’m inviting people to watch as the faces of the fallen are etched in the sand, and for communities to come together to remember the sacrifices that were made by so many that changed our society forever.”