Fatal Avenue: A Traveller's History of the Battlefields of Northern France and Flanders 1346-1945 - Softcover

"Enthralling information on everything from archery to fortification, and from strategy to ecology... It could scarcely be bettered" (Ronald Blythe)

"Exceedingly well written... triumphantly succeeds... Richard Holmes is equally sure-footed when dealing with the human element, writing with equal conviction about Joan of Arc, Malborough, Napoleon, Haig, Foch, Ludendorff, Montgomery, Eisenhower, and many others. His book is an outstanding recruit to the shelves of military history" (Martin Fagge)

"A panoramic view of the military history of the battle-scarred landscape extending from Lorraine to Normandy" (Sunday Times)

"Utterly fascinating. Its combined activities as uplifting route-map of courage and gloire and as sobering geo-history of human folly makes this a shaking, appalling, irresistible read" (Observer)

De Gaulle called it a 'fatal avenue' - that broad sweep of low-lying country stretching north-east of Paris. Over the centuries, invading armies have swept back and forth over this bloody terrain, and the names of battles fought here read like a dictionary of military history - from Agincourt, Calais and Crécy to Verdun, Vimy and Ypres.

Fatal Avenue is both a history and a guide - a unique study of a region that has witnessed more bitter military conflict than any other area of its size on earth.