A new film about the life of English poet, writer and soldier Siegfried Sassoon, who lived in Wiltshire for most of his life, is due out in cinemas today (Friday, May 20).

Written and directed by Terence Davies, Benediction explores the turbulent life of First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, played by Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi during different stages of his life.

Sassoon, who died aged 80 in Heytesbury, was educated at New Beacon Prep School in Sevenoaks, Kent; Marlborough College, and at Clare College, Cambridge University.

He lived at Fitz House in Teffont Magna in the Nadder valley before moving to Heytesbury House near Warminster, where he died on September 1 1967.

Sassoon was a complex man who survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery.

But when he came home to England he became a vocal critic of the government’s continuation of the war.

His poetry was inspired by his experiences on the Western Front and he became one of the leading war poets of the era.

It both described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war.

Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war in his "Soldier's Declaration" of 1917.

This culminated in his admission to a military psychiatric hospital and resulted in his forming a friendship with Wilfred Owen, whose own poetry was greatly influenced by him.

The synopsis for the biographical drama, says: “Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London’s literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality.

“At the same time, broken by the horror of war, he made his life’s journey a quest for salvation, trying to find it within the conformity of marriage and religion.

“His story is one of a troubled man in a fractured world, searching for peace and self-acceptance, something which speaks as meaningfully to the modern world as it did then.”

Benediction also stars Matthew Tennyson as Wilfred Owen, Jeremy Irvine as Ivor Novello, Geraldine James as his mother Theresa Thornycroft, Gemma Jones as his wife Hester Gatty, whom he married in 1933, and Simon Russell Beale as Robbie Ross.

To see the trailer, click here.