Called Fragments of War, it will commemorate the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Before setting down to write the piece of dramatic scenes, comedy and music, she was keen to retrace the steps of the Sheffield Pals.

"I had become interested in the Great War, particularly as there are two veterans still around in this country who are often being interviewed," she says.

"One of the things that intrigued me were those who answered Kitchener's call, Your Country Needs You, and why so many young men – 100,000 of them – volunteered and signed up.

"In Sheffield they were recruited very quickly and what interested me was what made men do that and keep on fighting, often knowing that they would be killed.

"Society was very different then. The sense of duty was strong and having a pride in King and Country.

"The Pals came from the same communities and some people think that was a very cynical thing to do because it would keep men fighting because they would not want to let their mates down. It would be bad for their families if they were cowards.

"From the army's point of view, having them all from the same community created a kind of cameraderie which would otherwise have taken years.

"In Sheffield it was mainly professional men who joined up. The battalion was formed at the university and there were technicians, bankers and office workers, whereas in other places in was mainly working class.

"That's the kind of detail you learn on these walks. We went to the places where the Sheffield Battalion fought alongside the Accrington Pals and the Barnsley pals and we visited the Sheffield Memorial Park.

"I tried to imagine what they were thinking and feeling and discovering in a few minutes how what they had been told was very different from reality. I looked out over the fields and woods to see what they would have seen.

"One day we went on a poet's walk which was very moving. Because it was such a static war so much was written – poetry and letters home. People were becoming more literate in those days.

"There are so many stories about what it was like. It's the little details how they were always asking for socks because they needed to change them twice a day and rub their feet in whale oil to avoid trench rot."

Co-written with Sheffield Popular Arts' Gill Buttery, Fragments of War will begin with the recruiting of the Sheffield Pals and follow their experience until the moment they went over the top.

"It makes it more vivid to be writing about a place where I have stood, what remains of the trench where men would have had months of preparation and then gone over the top," says Collins.