Gardens of War

In 1919, after five years of brutal conflict, World War I ended. And while the living soldiers returned home, the dead stayed where they had fallen, in war graves throughout Europe. This book takes readers to many of the graveyards that serve as the final resting places of British soldiers who died during World War I.  British cemeteries, we discover, are gardens, and many of them were designed by the greatest British architects of the time, such as Edwin Lutyens or Charles Holden, and their architectural quality is exceptional. Gardens of War invites us to discover these unique places by approaching them in two ways. First, we see them as a project, building our understanding from archival documents and the testimonies of the actors involved in this vast undertaking, including politicians, diplomats, and, above all, architects. But we are also invited to discover them as visitors who travel along the roads that connect them, restoring our impressions through sketches, photos, and drawings, as closely as possible to the sensitive and emotional experience of actually being there.