Perspective on war from an overgown airfield
by Simon Ingram from on (#T06H)
King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire There's not much left of the airfield now. Roofless buildings with narrow eyes, clearings. It's farmland, mostly. What remains hides behind summer leaves yet to atrophy to winter bones
Hostility in the countryside takes many shapes: here outside King's Cliffe, between thorned hedges, is a memorial to an installation built for war. Beyond it a fence, "Keep of my land" daubed in a red of a suggestive tone you suspect wasn't accidental, even if the misspelling was.
This autumn the Battle of Britain is 75. Ancient planes gleam, and amidst nostalgic glamour 1940 is brand new again. Few veterans remain as witnesses to the war's true age. Soon, there will be none.
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