Ypres today is an international 'Town of Peace'. But in 1914 the town, and the Salient, the 35-mile bulge in the Western Front, of which it is part, saw a 1500 day military campaign of mud and blood at the heart of the First World War that turned it into the devil's nursery.
The distinguished biographer and historian tells the story of the war in Flanders as a conflict that has left a deep social and political mark on the history of Europe.
