This poem first came to my notice when it was reproduced in the Daily Mail, March 10th, 1989. It had been enclosed with a letter sent by Stephen Cummins, a young soldier, to his parents, to be opened only in the event of his death. Stephen died on March 9th when a landmine blew up beneath his Landrover in Londonderry. The poem immediately caught the public's imagination and it was hailed in the press as "the most requested poem in the English language in the past 60 years" and "the poem that takes the nation by storm."

I found it overwhelmingly beautiful and was moved immediately to set the words to music. The melody came to me quickly, but to keep a "shape" to the song, I inserted the last two lines of the poem at the end of the first verse. I also preferred "glint" to "glints" in I am the diamond glint on snow.

I had no thought at the time of what, if anything I was going to do with the song. Having made a demo I made several attempts to have it recorded by a major artiste - and although there was considerable interest, no recording ensued. It is not the easiest song for an established artiste to take on, dealing as it does with a subject which carries with it a natural taboo.

As the years passed, the poem gradually began to root itself firmly in the nation's psyche - it was read out on television on Remembrance Sunday, by his father, Geoffrey Cummins and prompted a deluge of 'phone calls for copies of the poem. 15,000 copies were hurriedly printed and sent out. A subsequent reading on Esther Rantzen's "That's Life" programme resulted in 20,000 further copies being dispatched. The poem also became a firm favourite in America, where readings were given at memorial services for Marilyn Monroe and the five astronauts who died in the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

Meanwhile, my little demo record was making a name for itself. I had given copies out to friends who loved it and wanted it played for friends and relatives who had passed away. I then started receiving requests from people who wanted to know if it was available commercially to include in packages for their clients. At that point I decided the best way to get the message of the song across was to make a recording myself, so to this end I approached Alan Hawkshaw, to me the doyen of musical arrangers and composers of TV and film. I had worked with Alan in the past and knew that he was the man to help me in my efforts to have the song and its message heard by a worldwide audience.

Together, we set about the task of finding a singer. Several auditions later, Michael Cormick presented himself at Alan's studio and after a couple of run-throughs we knew our search was over.

We hope you find his performance as moving as we do.

Geoff Stephens