1914

A seasoned British officer looks back on the uneasy months before the Great War, weaving personal recollections with the stark political currents that were gathering across Europe. He recalls a quiet June journey through Paris, an unexpected conversation about the Archduke’s assassination, and a tense luncheon with the German ambassador—moments that hint at the looming catastrophe while the continent pretended nothing was changing.

The narrative then shifts to the early days of 1914, when the author, freshly resigned from the General Staff, watches the British army mobilise under field‑marshal French’s determined leadership. Through vivid description of troop movements, dwindling supplies and the relentless push toward Ypres, he captures the strain and resolve that defined the first brutal clashes on the Western Front. Listeners are invited into the mind of a man who sensed the approaching storm and witnessed the first, fierce attempts to halt it.