The Path of Peace: Walking the Western Front Way

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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). I haven’t read any other book by Anthony Seldon, but I think this must have been a very different undertaking for him personally than would have been his previous books, political analyses of former UK Prime Ministers. He is massively accomplished - his bio lists nearly 50 published works and he’s held positions of great responsibility and prestige.

Now he decided to walk the whole route – both to publicise the project (which will receive all the profits from The Path of Peace) and, he hoped, to help him achieve more balance in his own life. Seldon was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to education and modern political history. He is walking in a time of transition in his life, he was grieving for his wife who had recently died, his job had ended and he was temporarily homeless. Douglas Gillespie, somewhat oddly writing to his old school headmaster, expresses a wish that 'when peace comes, our government might combine with the French government to make one long Avenue between the lines from the Vosges to the sea.A timely , eloquent and convincing reminder that to forget the carnage of the past is to open the door to it happening again. Seldon's interest in World War 1 stretches back many years through his working life including hosting a number of trips to the trenches in Belgium and Northern France. 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 recommend his account to anyone with an interest in this period and especially to anyone considering walking the trail. It is an intensely personal work of someone trying to rediscover themselves and advance a worthy cause.

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. The Path of Peace' is the extraordinary story of Anthony's epic walk, combining memoir, nature writing and travel, and touching on grief, loss and the legacy of war in a profoundly moving act of remembrance. The writing is so vivid and powerful that you feel that you are with Seldon all the way as he reflects on the war, the landscape, and how he tackles the many physical challenges of such an endeavour. Nonetheless, he was forced to give up his plans to become a doctor and suffered from violent mood swings. I might not share Seldon's passion, but I can appreciate it and feel the importance that this walk traces a line that has a deep connection to the personal history of many European families.His maternal grandfather was badly injured in December 1914 and seemed unlikely to survive, but his wife badgered the War Office to let her go to France and bring him home. Early in the book Seldon comments 'I had noticed as a teacher how gripped my students were by the First World War - far more so than they were by the Second. He has a historian’s enthusiasm and sharp eye for spotting and recounting good stories, many from the particular battlefields he is passing by. This isn’t to say the story is primarily about Anthony Seldon; he provides an extraordinary account of the war and the lives of the soldiers who lost theirs in the battles. Touching on grief, loss and the legacy of war, The Path of Peace is the extraordinary story of Anthony’s epic walk, an unforgettable act of remembrance and a triumphant rediscovery of what matters most in life.