Speaker: Tom Isitt.

Tom is an author, historian, photographer and adventurer, specialising in the lesser-known aspects of the First World War. With 35 years experience behind him, he has been published in over a dozen countries. Thunder in the Mountains is his fifth book and has been editor of various sporting magazines, including cycling and boating. 

Tom's travels have taken him to the Italian Front more than a dozen times, during which time he has cycled and hiked more than 1200 miles and 210,000 ft. He has been caving hundreds of feet beneath the Kras in Slovenia and climbed to 11,300ft on the Ortler, in an attempt to experience something of what those men went through 100 years ago. 

He has spent a lot of time over the last six years exploring the Italian Front of WW1 on foot, by bicycle, and even on horseback, giving Tom a unique insight into the extraordinary battles that took place amongst the peaks and valleys of the Alpine Front. He walked in the footsteps of his Grandfather who served with the British 48th Division in Italy and tells the story of WW1 fought in very different circumstances to the wet plains of the Eastern Front. Here military advances were often measured in vertical measures, attack tunnels were dug through solid ice at 11,000ft above sea level, the tops of mountains were blown off with huge mines, and thousands of soldiers perished in avalanches.  Tom's book is part history, part travelogue, part battlefield guide. During his presentation Tom he will give us a brief insight into his experiences. However he will bring copies of his book should you wish to buy (cash or by card) to learn even more, either. He says he will avoid too much military history and concentrate on telling us all about walking in the mountains with his family and friends to do his research.