Siegfried Sassoon – the hell where youth and laughter go

The haunting and haunted life of leading World War One poet Siegfried Sassoon is being re-examined in Terence Davies’ Benediction, a biopic about personal loss, wasted life and talent unfulfilled – a man betrayed by himself. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front and described as recklessly  courageous, Sassoon turned against the war, writing poetry about the horror of the trenches and his 1917 Soldier’s Declaration against the continuation of the war became a cause ce