Wild Paths - by Caspar Walsh (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Inspired by old traditions of rite-of-passage initiations, with guidance from nature, Wild Paths explores how to enter compassionate and accountable adulthood via the many different facets of what it is to be a man today.

Caspar's work as a co-founder of A Band of Brothers centred on the idea that we have forgotten how to move through the stages of life, from childhood to adulthood, as we have done in times past. It is through conversation, companionship, shared storytelling and two-way mentorship, with elders to guide us through contemporary rites of passage, grounded in nature and landscape, that we can find direction and purpose, grow as sons, brothers, fathers, with family, friends and vocation, and become accountable to each other and society.

In Wild Paths, Caspar will explore each journey through twelve two-way mentoring conversations and with guidance, exercises and prompts to help the reader cross their own thresholds.

About the Author

Caspar Walsh has worked with young people, largely young men, after his own troubled childhood and early adulthood. Much of this work has been within the UK prison system and in youth justice teams on Dartmoor, where he lives. He focuses on teaching rites of passage, guiding through landscape, initiations into conscious manhood to help people heal and grow/ Caspar founded Rite to Freedom in 2008 to support disaffected young men undergo a rite of passage through nature and myth. His own initiatory journey began through the Mankind Project (MKP) in 1999, when he was 31 years old and he was awarded the MKP Ron Hering award for service in 2011. MKP is a global network supporting men to step into conscious, accountable manhood and service. It took Caspar across the UK to the US and Canada. Caspar became one of the co-founders of abandofbrothers, now an award-winning, internationally recognised charity offering rites-of-passage training for young men, led by older men.

Caspar Walsh's published works include his acclaimed memoir, Criminal, the dark crime thriller, Blood Road and the young adult novel, Tribe Warrior, inspired by his work with prisoners over the last two decades. He has written regularly for the Guardian and the Observer on criminal and social justice since 2005. His work for BBC Radio 4 includes two feature-length docudramas and a collection of short stories. Caspar has previously spoken at the Hay Festival and TedX among many other appearances in the media.