Nicholas Saunders

Today, hardly a month passes without some dramatic and sometimes tragic discovery being made along the old killing fields of the Western Front. Graves of British soldiers buried during battle - still lying in rows seemingly arm in arm or found crouching at the entrance to a dugout; whole 'underground cities' of trenches, dugouts and shelters have been preserved in the mud; field hospitals carved out of the chalk country of the Somme marked with graffiti;...

The 'Excavating the Past' series presents information on classical civilizations and the archaeological work carried out to reveal how our ancestors lived long ago. The series is designed for children working at Key Stage Two.

In this cultural history of the poppy, Nick Saunders shows how a humble flower became a universal symbol of remembrance and redemption. It is a journey through 3000 years, from the Trojan War to the 'War on Terror', from a primordial world of Greek sorcery and myth, to the killing fields of the First World War and beyond.