A website set up by Neil Bartlett  and Kate Pullinger, 1418now, is encouraging people to write a letter to someone who fought in World War I to mark its 100th anniversary. Thousands of people have already written to the unknown soldier (based on a commemorative statue in London’s Paddington station), including schoolchildren, pensioners, students, nurses and members of the serving forces, with many well-known writers contributing as well; authors as diverse and distinguished as Stephen Fry, Malorie Blackman, Andrew Motion, Lee Child, Louise Welsh, and Kamila Shamsie. Eventually all of the letters will be archived in the British Library where they will remain permanently accessible online. Emily Duke, a second year Literature student at Brighton, has had her ‘Letter To an Unknown Soldier’ selected to feature in the project. Here it is:

Letter to an Unknown Soldier

Darling Marilyn,

So this is it. We’re finally at the stage where just this paper brings us together. I know we’ve built up to this for weeks, but I never expected to miss your skin. That cluster of freckles behind your ear, the way your eyelashes form fanned shadows on your cheeks.

It’s the little things that make me hurt. And it’s the unknown, the silence of wondering how you’re coping, the silence of praying for all of those poor, poor men. I try to tell myself that they’re all going to be coming home to their loved ones, but I know, you know and they know. We all know the truth.

The thought of you facing their trauma first-hand is just too much to comprehend. Have you saved lives? Or is it always that little bit too late? Does the smell of blood ever stop making your stomach turn? It must all still chill you to the bone. I hope you can still feel something when you come home to me.

But, my love, if you don’t – I want you not to worry. I will warm you up again. I will hold you for as long as you need, and I will remind you that despite everything that’s happened, we live in a beautiful place and it is going to be ok.

Think of that. Think of us. Think of all that you are, that we are and will be. I will get you through this.

I am forever proud of you and forever yours.

Jenny