For the reasons stated above, a similar book from the German point of view, alas, will not be forthcoming. 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.

Writing a book on Boris Johnson, as planned, if I was to keep up my rhythm of books on recently departed prime ministers, would hardly help me do this.Mobile meditation" describes the long distance walking experience but like the book, who can guarantee that trudging along you will find the solutions to life's great questions! Particularly in France, many of the sites and memorials of the First World War were further damaged in the Second. Of course, the book does not replace a full-fledged history of the war on the Western Front, but it highlights the most important battles.

Anthony Seldon is so attracted to the idea that he is actually working to make it a reality - a huge bureaucratic undertaking - including walking the 1,000 km route himself. In many respects, though obviously to a lesser extent, his travails provide a mirror to those poor souls who actually lost their lives in WW1: the loss of his wife, the constant worry that he might not complete the walk, the exploration of his own life. This is excellently interwoven with information about WW1 and the formation and hopes for The Western Front Way itself. A fascinating account of walking the length of the World War 1 Western Front following one soldier's experience and the idea of creating a lasting living monument to the fallen.

And that his life's work in private education is part of the reason for that in helping to entrench the privilege and inequality of opportunity that stifles social mobility. He has served as headmaster of Wellington College and vice-chancellor of the (private, though non-profit) University of Buckingham, while producing dozens of comment pieces for newspapers and books on recent history, including celebrated studies of post-second world war British prime ministers.

The links and sequences between the great battles are shown, thereby making it much easier to understand their history, much better than in any larger and more comprehensive presentation. 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. But Pershing never even ran for president, another marker of the way the war is regarded in the United States. However, as every experienced walker knowns, walking brings peace of mind and in the end he found it apart from possible routing for the “Western Front Way”.From sumptuous towns in the east of France to the haunting trenches of the Somme and Ypres, the walk took in many important sites from World War I as well as some of Europe's most beautiful scenery. Tracing the historic route of the Western Front, he traversed some of Europe’s most beautiful and evocative scenery, from the Vosges, Argonne and Champagne to the haunting trenches of Arras, the Somme and Ypres. I didn’t really appreciate the comparisons he made initially with Patrick Leigh Fermor, and I was quite upset with him near the end when he gave away the ending of Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front”.

He remains “driven” enough to push himself to the limit towards the end because he has to get back to England to take part in a literary festival to publicise one of his books. The War of Independence gave George Washington a national profile that helped him become the new country’s first head of state. Though he had often promoted “the teaching of happiness”, he realised, “enduring peace had so far eluded me.He is massively accomplished - his bio lists nearly 50 published works and he’s held positions of great responsibility and prestige. As a bit of a WW1 buff I found the descriptions of the battles and aftermath (abandoned villages) most interesting. It is impossible not to be moved by a chaplain’s description of the last moments of a 19-year-old who had been court-martialled and sentenced to be shot: “I held his arm tight to reassure him and then he turned his blindfolded face to mine and said in a voice which wrung my heart, ‘Kiss me, sir, kiss me’, and with my kiss on his lips, and ‘God has you in his keeping’ whispered in his ear, he passed on into the Great Unseen.