In 2012/2013 JAM (The John Armitage Memorial Trust) developed a project called 'Writing for Voices' as part of the Britten in Oxford centenary bringing together six composers, six choirs and six poets. I worked with poet Matt Haw and the choir of St. Margaret's Oxford to create 'Rookwood Canticle', exploring the movement from darkness to light.

Chloe Stopa-Hunt was another of the selected poets and following the project we came together to work on War Songs. Inspired by the centenary of the start of the First World War we shared ideas about a Lamb of God/ lambs to the slaughter collocation. As Chloe says "I think that fundamentally I love doubled meanings and the exploitation of ambiguities, which is why those two senses of lamb are so potent and so effective."