I bought Hold Still because I admire HRH The Duchess of Cambridge and enjoy the National Portrait Gallery when in London, and knew that this project was to raise funds for the Gallery and Mind. What project? To call upon the British community for their iconic moments caught on camera.

I hadn’t expected that it would move, amuse,and fascinate me to the extent that it has.

It is quite simply an understated but remarkable chronicle of this memorable moment in our history, expressed through ‘the faces of our nation,’ as Nicholas Cullinan Director of the National Portrait Gallery writes. And as HRH The Duchess of Cambridge also intimates when she writes that she hopes the final 100 photographs chosen, pay tribute to the efforts of all who have worked to protect those around them.

And this is the key I believe. The kindness of strangers, of community, of family, of carers and professionals has indeed  been  faithfully presented by so many many people – 31,000 at least.

The intention behind this Hold Still  was to use the power of photography to create a lasting record, a photographic record – a photographic record not taken by professionals but by us, the community, accompanied by text. In page after page  the brief is fulfilled as  individual stories are laid bare, stories that perhaps reflect our own.

Out of over 31,000 submissions the daunting task was to slim down to 100. The committee included Nicholas Cullinan, the Duchess of Cambridge, and several others. Not an easy task, but this book really is a record of a time we cannot, must not, and will not forget, Within its covers are images of triumph, loss, humour, exhaustion, despair.

I love and laughed at the brilliant postman who donned fancy dress to keep up people’s spirits. I wept at the endeavour of the 5 year old boy who was inspired by Captain Tom to walk on his prosthetic legs and crutches 10km throughout June, to raise £500 but actually  raised £1.2 million pounds for NHS charities. Read the text beneath the image. It will stop any  grumbles in its tracks.

I loved and empathised, and was grateful for the sacrifice, the weariness of those on the frontline,.

I stared into the past at  the pain of the final goodbye between father and daughter, his hand flat on the glass window, she outside, mirroring his hand, the glass separating them but inconsequential in the face of  so much love. This was a goodbye, the text explains , made possible by the kindness and effort of carers.

And on and on.

It is a noble, heartwarming, heartwringing history of a fragmentary moment in the span of time, a moment in which  so many excelled, a moment in which so many sacrificed, so many found a new normal, reached out, and helped others along the way. It has been a time  in which many found the courage to stand tall and though afraid,  reach out, support, until  finally here we are, vaccinated (oh bravo) and here they are, 3100 photographers who  did not shrink from recording their emotions. And finally 100 of these images have been captured in this book, a precious few but symbolic of a time in which nobility triumphed, in all its self-deprecating shades.

Our thanks must go to those who spearheaded this project in a quiet but determined way: HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, Nicholas Cullinan, and the team, the  Co-op who helped so much in taking the final portraits to the communities and to their  photographers, through community exhibitions and this book.

Especially thanks to those 31,000 who contributed, and congratulations to the 100 who aspired, and whose work will be – if not set in stone, at least preserved in a beautifully presented book.

Buy it, keep it for those who come after, to introduce  them to a time when we held the line, remembered kindness. A time in which so many millions became heroes.

Hold Still can be obtained here  Remember that it benefits Mind and The National Gallery.