Writing the War : battlefield guidebooks and the establishing of an « essential » touring narrative

So ends a conversation between the novelist Henry Williamson and an unknown American tourist outside an Ypres hotel. In this short excerpt, Williamson captured an aspect of interwar battlefield tourism that caused tension between ex-servicemen, pilgrims and those regarded as tourists. Pilgrims and ex-servicemen, represented by organisations such the Ypres League, Toc H and latterly the British Legion, saw this reduction of the war experience to a few key sites as a denigration of the sacrific...