In Love and War

Travel Guide

Ypres

This story is inspired by real places, people and events and is written in memory of Lt Geoffrey Foveaux Trenow of the London Rifel Bridge who received the Military Cross for bravery and died in Flanders in September 1917. His body has never been found. This man was the author’s husband’s uncle and so this brings a very poignant and personal touch to the novel. (His name is one of those engraved on the Menin Gate)

Hoppestadt

This is not a real town but one based on the many in and around the Flanders and Ypres area. The controversy of Battlefield tours was very real as only a few months after the American Armistice in November 1918, thousands of relatives and loved ones travelled to Ypres in the hope of seeing where their loved ones had last been. These Tours to the battlefields were organised by church groups and companies such as Thomas Cook. The number of hotels grew and guidebooks were rushed off the presses.

The author explains in her Authors Word how these tours were deemed to be in bad taste. The families however, such as the three women in this story, were desperate to see for themselves where their loved ones had fought and possibly died. The women all looking for someone close, had no idea if they had even lost their husbands, sons and family members. Imagine the pain of not knowing and the sense of frustration and sadness at not being able to grieve properly.

The first world war ended in 1919, and now, in 2017, there are many tours organised to this part of the world and this part of history.

Poperinghe

A small town close to Ypres, which remained just behind the battle lines of the war. It was the divisional HQ of the Allied Command for the area and it was here that the army champlain (Rev Philip (Tubby) Clayton set up his Everyman’s club to provide a place for soldiers of any rank, to rest and relax as well as recuperate. Talbot House is now open for visitors.