The valley of the River Onk cuts like a deep scar across the Somme battlefields of 1916.

Attack after attack made this a deadly corner of Piccaddy, but its quiet lanes today make

it a place for reflection, the perfect place to walk the som.

It seems that whenever we reach some sort of milestone with the podcast, we find ourselves

back on the som, and that's no different for this episode, which marks the 60th Old Frontline podcast.

We're coming close to nearly a quarter of a million downloads.

And I just want to thank you all again for your support by listening, by downloading,

and also for those of you who support the production of the podcast via Buy Me a Coffee or on Patreon.

That is very much appreciated. As I've said, many times the podcast will always be free.

That was something that was very important to me from the very beginning. But your help and

supports and your contributions towards production means that going forward we can continue to do this and find new ways of bringing material to a bigger audience which is partly what the podcast is all about.

It's been an interesting week for those with a fascination for the Great War. The obituary of the author

Lynn MacDonald appeared in The Guardian this week, written by military historian James Holland.

And it was good to see James pay tribute to the work of Lynn. Her books in the 1970s and

80s inspired, I'm sure, many of us to find out more about the Great War

and travel to those battlefields along the Western Front.

I remember after my first visit to Epe in 1982, going to foils in London when it was just this

huge, anarchic array of books scattered on different

floors and the military books tucked away in one far corner and finding a first edition

of Lynn MacDonald's book, which was still in print then, of course, about Passiondale

and reading that and absolutely devouring it and when

a song book came out in 1983 exactly the same i took it to the song with me that summer and walked

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