The Warrior Walker: An author walk with Paul Harris

In 2020, Paul Harris aka ‘The Warrior Walker’ set off on a walking pilgrimage around the UK that would change his life and the way he saw the world forever.
Weighed down by a traumatic military past, a brief but surreal moment as a reality TV contestant and a temporary teaching career in Thailand, Paul was forced home when a visa mix-up tipped his life over. Having surveyed the wreckage, where there was no real family to speak of, very few friends, and a collapsing, long distance relationship to grieve, he seriously contemplated taking his own life at the age of 36. Then a random text from a friend delivered a route map to emotional safety during what were possibly his final few hours.

Paul, why don’t you walk the British coast path?

With only £300 in his pocket and a 30-kilo rucksack on his back, Paul decided to leave his life as he knew it and took up wild camping, slept rough, struggled along the coast paths of Devon, Cornwall and Wales in the sideways rain, and wading through knee-high snowdrifts around the Scottish islands and the burning summer sun on England’s east coast. Walking was therapy. Nature was restorative. The path was his friend.

The Warrior Walker is more than just one man’s journey of self-discovery. Paul’s story shines a light on the kindness of strangers, of the coast path gave him purpose, about discovering family and true love, giving back to the communities who supported him and of finding light even in his darkest of moments. In a world where so much human interaction is cruel, divisive and distant, this is a reminder that there is magic out there, if we are willing to open ourselves to it.

 

To celebrate the release of The Warrior Walker, Paul will be chatting to people, signing books and leading a guided walk through some of the green lanes that are only a stone’s throw from Totnes town centre.

Walk with Paul, at The East Gate Bookshop on Saturday 4th April
Paul should be with us from 13:30 and the walk will commence at 14:00, starting from and finishing at the bookshop.
The two mile walk should take just around an hour and will involve some steep and uneven ground..

 

Tickets are limited and free from this link