1918: The Decisive Year in Soldiers' own Words and Photographs is the
next volume in the remarkable series of books from the best-selling
First World War historian Richard van Emden. Revisiting the winning
formula of diaries and memoirs, and above all original photographs taken
on illegally-held cameras by the soldiers themselves, Richard tells the
story of 1918, of both the ferocious spring offensive that so nearly
brought victory for the Germans in the West, and the tenacious British
rearguard fight that thwarted them. The book also tells the vivid story
of the Allied breakthrough and the return to open warfare that was to
bring victory in November 1918. His previous books, The Road to
Passchendaele and The Somme have sold over 30,000 copies in hardback and
softback, proving that the public appetite is undiminished for new,
original stories illustrated with over 150 rarely or never-before-seen
battlefield images.
The author has an outstanding collection of over 5,000 privately-taken
and overwhelmingly unpublished photographs, revealing the war as it was
seen by the men involved, an existence that was sometimes exhilarating,
too often terrifying, and occasionally even fun.
This book will be published in 2018, in time for the 100th anniversary
of the Armistice and the national commemorations that will mark the end
of the four-year-long series of centennial events to mark the Great War.
