WAR, much as we might say we abhor it, continues to fascinate.

I would describe myself as a pacifist, being disinclined to believe for a moment that violence on any level solves anything, ever.

I’m also massively inclined to want a better, more fulfilling world for every person aboard Spaceship Earth.

For that to happen, you have to be alive in the first place. And in general, war is not conducive to staying alive.

Last March I visited Auschwitz. If anything will convince you that war is an excuse to unleash inhumanity on an unimaginable scale, the cold silence of Auschwitz is it.

So what is a pacifist doing hiring out the DVD Hurt Locker, about US bomb disposal units in Iraq, as I did this week?

Why was I so fascinated in their time with Saving Private Ryan, The Deer Hunter, The Thin Red Line, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket?

Last weekend we couldn’t resist the second part of the dramatisation of Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong, of which the most notable feature was the main character, a World War One soldier played by a twitching, weeping, lip-pursing and mumbling Eddie Redmayne.

My father-in-law, who died a couple of weeks ago, was a medical officer on the Russian convoys in World War Two and had the medals to prove it.

The convoys were set up to supply the beleaguered Soviet Union by shipping food, armaments and equipment across the Arctic.

The Germans didn’t like goods coming in to Russia by the back door and hunted the convoys with warships and U-boats.

They sank 85 of the 1,400 merchant ships that tried to get through. The Royal Navy lost 16 warships defending them.