Dr Spencer Jones talks about The Darkest Year, a collection of essays he edited on the British Army fighting on the Western Front in 1917 during the Great War. The volume covers a wide range of subjects including grand strategy, tactical development and training, maintenance of morale and the importance of intelligence gathering. It also includes insightful studies of crucial battles and engagements such as the advance to the Hindenburg Line, Third Battle of the Scarpe and the dreadful struggle for Bourlon Wood. Spencer outlines what this book tells us about the state of the British Army in 1917 and how far it had progressed along the ‘learning process’ of operational and organisational development. Spencer is a Senior Lecturer in Armed Forces and War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, and currently serves as the Regimental Historian of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.