The Path of Peace: Walking the Western Front Way

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Drawing again on his deep knowledge the author enriches the story of the Western Front with the personal fate of participants in the fights; not very much new there (e. Instead, this blend of history, travelogue and deep personal reflection makes for a moving as well as interesting and entertaining read.

There’s a lot more on this subject, with facts and figures, which I’m not good at retaining, and some interesting points about how much, by contrast, World War Two meant to Americans, including the role of Hollywood in its promulgation. Passing through rebuilt towns and cities, destroyed villages, numerous memorials and remains of trenches and shell craters, Seldon paints a vivid picture of the bloody campaigns. His walk is also shaped by the experiences of a young soldier's experiences on the western front and his letters home, who's idea the footpath was. There is perhaps a slight jarring for me personally from the realisation that the social distance between Sir Anthony's ancestor Wilfred Willett (Cambridge, 2nd Lt, London Rifles) and mine - a Cardiff docker and gunner with the Welsh division on the Somme - is probably quite similar to the social distance between Sir Anthony and me today.He was the 13th Master (headmaster) of Wellington College, one of Britain's co-educational independent boarding schools. He notes that he was head of two public schools and then ran a 'small university' which his father had helped set up in 1976. As a result, Seldon’s mother had a childhood that left her with a “lifelong sense of foreboding and constant anxiety” – “debilitating personality traits” that he believes he has inherited and has “never been able to transcend”. Memories of the Civil War were still vivid; this, not the 1917-18 war, was to Americans, their own ‘Great War’.

However, whether or not the romantic dream is achievable, the book is both informative and occasionally able to hit the emotional spot. Of course there are many pure history books with more detail about WW1 but this book is multi-faceted with additional honest detail about the Author's hopes and even dreams.In 2009, he set up The Wellington Academy, the first state school to carry the name of its founding independent school. My only criticism would be - not enough to knock a star off - was the quality of the photographic reproduction. A huge undertaking and a book that is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the First World War. And he made it, regardless of the challenges: Covid still reigned, making accommodation scarce, the territory to a significant extent uncharted, meaning that he had to find his own way (once he sighed relief when he could just trot along somebody else who was the pathfinder), sometimes in rough terrain, making him fall down into a crevice, and a vicious dog biting him, with the ensuing visit to a hospital (one of in total three -short- stays in hospital during the trip). It is unclear how far his arduous walk has brought peace to the author of this strikingly tormented book.

His beloved wife, Joanna, had died of cancer and, after disputes with the board, Seldon decided to quit Buckingham, leaving him with “no job, no home, no wife”. Anthony Seldon’s moving analysis of The First World War was interrupted by his family issues, his physical afflictions on the walk, and what I felt were modern (superficial) intrusions such as an interview on Sky and a message on Twitter.He is author or editor of over forty books on contemporary history, politics and education, including The Impossible Office? The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.