Spud, a book by Brian Griffin inspired by a residency in Béthune-Bruay in Northern France, marks the centenary of the end of World War I. With the coincidence of the informal British word for potato also being slang for low-ranking British soldiers in the conflict, Griffin began to explore the relationship between the potatoes grown in the soil and the soldiers who were killed in the very same place over 100 years ago. Griffin was originally approached about the residency due to the links between Northern France and his native Black Country, a region of the West Midlands, both in terms of landscape and industrial history. Near the site of the Battle of the Somme stands a large McCain factory, one of the largest potato production plants in Europe, producing around 1700 tons of frozen chips each day. Upon visiting Béthune, Griffin was greatly moved and disturbed by the number of casualties on the Western Front, and the resulting work weaves together painterly colour images inspired by British Realism with black and white photographs of military personnel, factory workers and businessmen, taken on location in England and France.