Why can't we face up to the true horrors of the first world war?

The savagery of the Great War shattered Europe – yet, when it comes to art, we hide the shocking, gory images in favour of something more palatable

I recently wandered into the gift shop at a National Trust property and peered into the bargain bin. Most of the products being sold off cheap were first world war centenary souvenirs: Horrible Histories first world war magnets, Red Baron Post-it notes, a strange collection of 21st century images of a 20th century war.

It seems the time for remembering was last year. Britain invested so much energy in marking the centenary of the Great War’s outbreak, that we are now giving much more muted attention to the four years of terrible events that followed. The bargain bin full of last year’s memorial cash-ins is an indication of how hard it is to genuinely understand, face, and do justice to the enormity of the 1914-18 war and what it did to the modern world.

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