In 2015 Phil McCarthy, a Bristol GP, set off to walk from Rome to Istanbul. The Dusty Roads of History is the story of his journey along Roman roads through Italy, Albania, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey. Along the way he visits the Holy Mountain of Mount Athos at Easter and the battlefields of Gallipoli in the centenary year of the World War One invasions.
The book is an exploration of the potential for modern travel to be a pilgrimage into one's own personal and family history as well as the wider world events that shaped them.