"Bob Royalty's memoir Walking Hadrian's Wall is a disarmingly candid, warmly chatty, movingly vulnerable account of one man's willed encounter with the barriers we use to keep what we fear at bay. The narrative's slow burn of suspense will intrigue anyone who loves trekking, birdwatching, ancient Roman history, or armchair traveling. More importantly, Royalty is a kindhearted father, a searching son, a thoughtful and highly knowledgeable scholar and teacher, and most of all, a deeply human soul, earnestly grappling with profound loss and grief. His wisdom, generosity, and heartfelt humanity shine."

-Joy Castro, author of Flight Risk

"When Bob Royalty's father commits suicide, it sends ripples through his life for the next twenty-five years. Walking Hadrian's Wall is a travel memoir that explores this moment of his history against the bucolic backdrop of a walk along Hadrian's Wall in England, a journey through Roman antiquity that proves restorative and healing. Join Royalty in this introspective memoir about family, trauma, love, and loss, and what to do when obstacles come your way. For anyone who seeks to understand issues of mental health and the walls that often separate us, I can't endorse this book enough."

-Eric Freeze, author of French Dive: Living More with Less in the South of France and Hemingway on a Bike

"How do you come to terms with a father's suicide? In Bob Royalty's case, it took time (25 years!), a strenuous walk across England, and the courage to talk about it in public. As readers, we are privileged to accompany Royalty on his journey of reconciliation as he pushes back against the forces that build walls to separate us from others, from our loved ones, and from our own deepest fears and hopes."

-John McGowan, author of American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time

"Bob Royalty starts his moving, meditative travel memoir with the suicide of his father. It might be a dour beginning, but what he does with sorrow-the sorrows every family experiences in some way-is literary alchemy. This is a thoughtful book to be placed beside Bruce Chatwin's Songlines or Colin Fletcher's The Man Who Walked Through Time. It's also as full of fascinating historical fact and the wonders of nature as a dime novel is full of action. Saying the book is literally about walking Hadrian's Wall or birdwatching, is akin to saying Thoreau's Walden is about cabin camping. The journey outward is always the journey inward. Read this for its warmth, its humanity, its connection to us all."

-Corey Mesler, author of Memphis Movie and The Diminishment of Charlie Cain