or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
15 used & new from Ł2.76
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited
  
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited (Paperback)

by Richard Holmes (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: Ł20.00
Price: Ł17.00 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: Ł3.00 (15%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Usually dispatched within 1 to 3 weeks.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

2 new from Ł10.00 12 used from Ł2.76 1 collectible from Ł30.00
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback (New edition) 9 used & new from Ł3.14

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914-18 by Richard Holmes

Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited + Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914-18
Price For Both: Ł29.49

One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

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

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

by Richard Holmes
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  Ł6.98
Le Cateau (Battleground Europe)

Le Cateau (Battleground Europe)

by Nigel Cave
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  Ł8.99
Mons: The Retreat to Victory

Mons: The Retreat to Victory

by John Terraine
Ł9.09
Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914-18

Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914-18

by Richard Holmes
5.0 out of 5 stars (5)  Ł12.49
Ypres: The First Battle 1914

Ypres: The First Battle 1914

by Ian F.W. Beckett
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  Ł6.96
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (6 April 1995)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0224037625
  • ISBN-13: 978-0224037624
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,176,872 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #100 in  Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Historians > Holmes, Richard

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Exclusive Alpine Luxury opens new browser window
www.morzine-retreat.co.uk  -  The Retreat, luxury in a 300 yr old Savoyard farmhouse. Sleeps 14+ 
   The Retreat Cottage opens new browser window
hoseasons.co.uk/the_retreat_cottage  -  Book The Retreat Cottage online. Perfect for short breaks & holidays 
  
 

Product Description

Product Description

This is an account of the author and his four friends' journey following the route taken by the British Expeditionary Force, nearly 80 years previously, on its retreat from the German offensive at Mons. The ride took them from the Belgian border, over the battlefields of the World War I, across the plains and rivers of Northern France, to the banks of the Marne where, in September 1914, the BEF played its part in General Joffre's counter-attack against von Moltke's army. This is a blend of contemporary testimony with an analysis of the 1914 military campaign.


About the Author

Richard Holmes is Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Royal Military College of Science. He was educated at Cambridge, Northern Illinois, and Reading Universities, and carried out his doctoral research on the French army of the Second Empire. For many years he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. A celebrated military historian, Richard Holmes is the author of the best-selling and widely acclaimed Tommy and Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket. His dozen other books include Dusty Warriors, Sahib, The Western Front, The Little Field Marshal: Sir John French, The Road to Sedan, Firing Line, The Second World War in Photographs and Fatal Avenue: A Traveller's History of Northern France and Flanders (also published by Pimlico). He is general editor of The Oxford Companion to Military History and has presented eight BBC TV series, including 'War Walks', 'The Western Front' and 'Battlefields', and is famous for his hugely successful series 'Wellington: The Iron Duke' and 'Rebels and Redcoats'. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(5)
(4)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited
73% buy the item featured on this page:
Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited 4.5 out of 5 stars (4)
Ł17.00
Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914-18
10% buy
Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914-18 5.0 out of 5 stars (5)
Ł12.49
Fatal Avenue: A Traveller's History of the Battlefields of Northern France and Flanders 1346-1945
8% buy
Fatal Avenue: A Traveller's History of the Battlefields of Northern France and Flanders 1346-1945 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
Ł6.98
Marlborough: Britain's Greatest General: England's Fragile Genius
5% buy
Marlborough: Britain's Greatest General: England's Fragile Genius 4.3 out of 5 stars (7)
Ł5.97
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An exemplar of military history writing, 11 Mar 2007
By Dr. Andrew P. Winrow (Middlesex, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited (Paperback)
Although this is one of Richard Holmes' earliest works and now re-released, 'Riding the Retreat' remains a unique amalgam of travel book and military history of the most enjoyable, if somewhat quirky, type. As a detailed view of the opening moves of August and September 1914, I can only praise this book. Both strategy and more detailed anecdotes are supported by snippets of archival material that may already be familiar to those who are devotees of Richard Holmes' other books. The nature of the BEF, its social structure and the individual battles are brought to life as Holmes and his companions explore the battlefields in a way as never before. But what is different is the often humourous stories of this, Professor Holmes' equestrian adventure with colleagues, covering the countryside in Belgium and France of the BEF's retreat. Details of saddle soreness, riding through fields and forests and the antics of his own horse jostle with a personal narrative that would grace any travelogue.

Professor Holmes' passion for the ordinary soldier comes to the fore as well as his respect for those coping with a conflict that was outside of all of their expectations. Admittedly I am a fan of Professor Holmes and his writing however I would personally recommend this as his finest work to date and, for me, this is the definitive history of those first weeks from the BEF's perspective.

Thoroughly recommended.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Holmes' passion for history is without equal, 19 Sep 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited (Paperback)
A spectacular book. It takes the form of a travelogue about Holmes' own journey retracing the steps of the BEF (as the 1914 army was called) From preparing to go to France to the retreat from Mons. This book displays Holmes' total command of both historical fact and story telling. At no time does he become more important that his subject matter (so rare in travel writing), as he skilfully unravels what it must have been like to go to war in 1914, using diaries, letters and regimental biographies as well as first hand experiences, eighty years on. It is an absolutely riveting read.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4.0 out of 5 stars "As the champagne flowed...", 30 Sep 2009
By C. Nation "chrisnation" (Bristol UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited (Paperback)
I'll read this book again because the account of the retreat from Mons in the opening months of The Great War is excellent and deserves further study if, as I am, one is in the process of becoming a battlefields guide. Despite this book not being intended as an exhaustive account of the period August-September 1914, it is a very good primer for the retreat - in fact it's probably detailed enough for the majority of readers with a general interest in WW1. As usual with Richard Holmes, he adds colour to the picture with descriptions of earlier conflicts and events associated with the terrain he's traversing, from Roman times, through The Knights Templar to Marlborough & Wellington's campaigns.

One thing surprised me. In the preface to this 2007 edition he acknowledges ["mea maxima culpa"] the grave error of attributing the storming of Le Quesnoy to the Canadians rather than the Kiwis but the error is uncorrected in the text. If you know the setting for the 'escalade' and how the Kiwis managed it, you might well imagine Kiwis sticking pins into a wax model of the author, to this day.

Sadly, one thing that did not surprise me, because I find it all to prevelent in books of military history, where clear mapping is vital, was the poor quality of the maps. I'll wager that the originals have been substantially reduced down to fit the page and thus have become cramped and, in some cases, well nigh illegible. Place names and names of combat units are in an attractive but wholly unsuitable calligraphic script. The map of 'Mons. 23rd August 1914' looks like a spider's web that has been sprayed with ink - and then walked over by the spider. These maps are by Elizabeth Holmes.

Prof Holmes could do with some tuition in photography, too. The pix of his party on the trip are woeful. The great war photographer Robert Capa famously said, "If your pictures are not good enough, you're not close enough." He was talking about battlefield reportage but the maxim holds good for everyone else, too.

One of the things I'll be looking out for and making a note of - just for fun, rather than in pursuit of widening my own knowlwdge of WW1 - is how many times the phrase "as the champagne flowed.." occurs in this book.

I mention this because there is sizeable element of "what we did on our holidays" in Holmes's narrative. It's true to say that the account of the journey Holmes and his saddle-mates undertook is part of the story but I was just a tad uncomfortable with the extent of the quotidien details - the endless fettling required to keep a horse roadworthy, what he had for dinner, from aperitif to eau-de-vie and cigars, at various restaurants and gracious chateaux and country estates along the way. Despite being in the land of Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre, there are repeated mentions of "Syvaner", clearly a Holmes favourite [at the time], which surprised me because it is the principle grape of the notorious Liebfraumilch, of which the less drunk the better.

Talking of drunk, there were also an alarming number of occasions on which the brigadier [as he now is] could not remember going to bed/who drove home/whether he was talking nonsense all night, followed by an equal number of regrettable hangovers next morning.

As for the horses - Holmes and pals definitely did it the hard way. Holmes's horse is terrified of dustbins and plastic bags caught in hedges. A gust of wind in trees makes one of the horses spook, rip the top rail off a fence and escape, dragging the rail with it accompanied by Holmes's horse, which was also tethered to the same rail. On another occasion the same horse ran off with a sizable stable door in tow. Another horse spooked in the roadway, threw its rider and pitched itself upside down into a ditch where it thrashed about on its back with its legs in the air. As Holmes so rightly says, "there's no fathoming the equine mind."

However, the account of the BEF's fighting march south is classic Holmes, full of strategic, tactical and personal detail. I've always found Holmes's writing shot through with compassion and sympathy when describing individuals in the actions he describes and this gives his account a generous humanity, whether dealing with the British or the German troops.

I've been poking a little fun at Prof Holmes's account of his ride through Belgium and France because it was on many occasions an equine version of "Three Men In A Boat" but there's no mistaking the quality and solidity of the military history in this eminently enjoyable book.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of the retreat
A very interesting and down to earth read, I was however very disappointed about the lack of the account of the Household Cavalry (Royal Horse Guards,1st Royal Dragoons, and the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by MR PJ HUNT

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject



















i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.