The Western Front - North: Battlefield Guide: Mons, le Cateau, Notre Dame de Lorette, First Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge, Festubert, Second ... (Major and Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guides) - Softcover

During the 20 or more years that we personally conducted thousands of people around the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars we not only underwent a continuous learning process from our travellers about the details of military history but also what their prime interests were.At first, 99% of the interest in the First World War was for the Ypres-Passchendaele area and for the Somme. However by the turn of the Millenium visitors were looking further afield and at that time only the seminal book by our old friend Rose Coombs gave any travelling information about other parts of the Western Front.So we set about visiting and photographing the entire length of the Western Front. We do not use researchers but do all of the work ourselves including all the travelling, the layouts, drawing the maps (though they are 'polished' by our designer), choosing the covers and compiling the indexes.What we also learned from our travellers was the kind of directions they needed if they were to set out by themselves to tour the battlefields. And then as we wrote more guide books (now around 30) we progressively learned how to explain directions, a seemingly easy thing to do but in fact very challenging. This range of knowledge we incorporated into our books.We have produced two books that cover the Western Front, each with hundreds of coloured photographs and maps showing the locations of hundreds of memorials. This is one of the books. We hope that you find it to be what you were looking for.

Major and Mrs Holt founded the first organisation to offer battlefield tours to the general public in the late 1970s. Since the 1990s they have been writing their series of guide books, incorporating all that they have learned from their experiences conducting thousands of people around battlefields. This series, designed to serve as companions for travellers, whether sitting at home or physically visiting the battlefields, includes detailed travel directions, military history, fascinating anecdotes and tourist information. The Holts share the writing of their books equally and conduct all their own research, spending many weeks on the ground as they prepare each new book or update previously published titles.