Wayfarer: Love, loss and life on Britain's pilgrim paths

Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year 2025

A Financial Times best summer travel book of 2024

Having spent a lifetime exploring unfamiliar places, she quit her dream job, ended her long-term relationship and headed home to North Wales to discover the point to… everything.

In her search for answers she found herself – quite by accident – walking some of Britain’s oldest pilgrim paths. And by following these old ways, she ended up confronting past traumas that she thought she had laid to rest.

But while it follows holy trails, this is not a book about religion. From losing her mother as a teenager to surviving toxic relationships, Phoebe offers an unflinchingly honest look at her battle with an eating disorder, depression, and the pitfalls of newfound singledom.

Skillfully weaving together Phoebe’s own story with those of countless travelers past and present, Wayfarer reveals how nature and place can heal past wounds, offering a pathway to salvation she’d never thought existed.

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'A powerfully delicate book of love, loss and discovery, along paths of emotional understanding and physical wonder.' Raynor Winn

On an assignment to walk the most famous pilgrimage in the world – the Camino de Santiago, in northern Spain – Phoebe Smith somehow lost her way.

Phoebe Smith (Author)

Phoebe Smith is an award-winning travel writer, photographer, presenter and broadcaster (specialising in adventure, walking, solo travel, gear and wildlife conservation). She is host of the monthly Wander Woman Podcast. She regularly writes for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times (of London) and is a correspondent for BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent. She is also Sleep Storyteller-in-Residence at Calm where her stories have been listened to over 15 million times and been narrated by Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Jerome Flynn, Bindi Irwin and Danai Gurira to name a few. Phoebe is the author of 10 books to date.

Passionate about inspiring young people and helping those who don’t get to choose to sleep wild for fun, she is an ambassador for Centrepoint (the young people’s homeless charity). To date she has raised over £42,000 for them in her Extreme Sleep Outs.