This month marks 40 years since I first set foot on the old front line.

When I look back over those four decades, what was that first trip like?

What's it like to have worked as a battlefield guide to have lived on those battlefields?

And what are some of my favourite places.

I've just returned from the We Have Ways Festival.

This is a festival organised by the We Have Ways podcast community,

a podcast about the Second World War by Al Murray and military historian James Holland.

And I know many of you who listened to the old front line, listened to that as well.

It's a different war, a different conflict.

But what was really great was to meet so many of you who listened to this podcast at that festival.

A real community, sense of community there amongst the people that we met over the course of the weekend and a real dedication and passion for the history of not just the Second World War

but the wider aspects of conflict in the 20th century.

And I can't say enough thanks really to those of you who took time to

come over to our ledger battlefield stand and come and talk to me about how much you enjoy this

podcast and where you listen to it and what you get out of it and some ideas for future podcasts.

That was really great to meet so many of you over the course of that weekend.

And I think that what events like that show is just how vibrant,

how important military history is to a wider public.

And the level of engagement with history, I think,

has never really been any higher than it is at the moment, born partly

out of the lockdown period, which gave birth to this podcast and so many others, but I think

continues way beyond that.

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