The Path of Peace: Walking the Western Front Way

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His walk had echoes of the exploits of nineteenth century explorers - not only did he undertake it when most of us weren't travelling because of the Covid pandemic, it seemed to involve very vague planning, carrying no paper maps, and the mad inspiration of not taking any spare clothing to reduce the weight of stuff to carry. Intermixed in this is the agony and ecstasy of long walking journeys/ pilgrimages and what they reveal to and about us. The repeated sets of details of numbers killed, atrocities and more certainly hammer the point home, though over time it can feel a little repetitive. For the reasons stated above, a similar book from the German point of view, alas, will not be forthcoming.

A combination of introspective diary, war diary and travel writing, I'm not going to lie, it's made me interested in doing this walk.The book naturally is written from the British perspective, not neglecting the other Allied Forces (even the Russian Expeditionary Force is mentioned! this would be a 'Via Sacra' which would provide a pilgrimage route to enable the inhabitants of Western Europe to 'think and learn what war means. The route of his 1,000 kilometre journey was inspired by a young British soldier of the First World War, Alexander Douglas Gillespie, who dreamed of creating a 'Via Sacra' that the men, women and children of Europe could walk to honour the fallen. 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. I wouldn’t presume to take issue with that, and I imagine that it would be a very useful source of knowledge and analysis for anyone needing to study or learn about The Western Front.

Interesting detail is also added by the description of the soldiers’ equipment which at least at the beginning of the hostilities was to a large extent woefully inadequate (as the author's throughout the walk seemd to be to an expienced walker). The Western Front Way, an idea that waited 100 years for its moment, is the simplest and fittest memorial yet to the agony of the Great War. The reader does not have to be a First World War expert to appreciate the historical background, as the relevant elements of the conflict are cleverly explained in the course of the narrative. Some of his problems, Seldon now suspects, can be traced back to the psychological aftershocks of the great war.

We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from. His self-doubt and the physical hardships (he was sixty-eight at the time), establish a profound empathy with those who lost their lives in the battles on the Western Front.

Anthony Seldon's account of how he walked it, and what it means to all of us, will be an inspiration to younger generations.I hope that Anthony Seldon did find his own peace, scattering the traces of his own life’s battles along the path of “the silent witnesses”.