New Book ‘Backpack, Jacket, Surfboard’ Reflects on a Life-Changing Journey across America — Then and Now

Graham Broyd retraces his solo journey across America — then and now — exploring change, purpose, and what it means to truly see yourself and the world.

CHARLESTON, SC, UNITED STATES, August 12, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- ‘Backpack, Jacket, Surfboard’ by Graham Broyd and released by Advantage Books is now available.

Author and global entrepreneur Graham Broyd shares the story of his cross-country quest for meaning, connection, and personal growth in his new book Backpack, Jacket, Surfboard: My Journey Across America, Then and Now.

The book, published by Advantage Books, chronicles Broyd’s solo journey across the United States — first as a wide-eyed 20-year-old student in 1980, and then again more than 40 years later. Along the way, he offers reflections on personal transformation, the American spirit, and the universal search for purpose.

“My trip across America was a voyage of personal discovery, fed by remarkable adventures that helped explain America to me in a way I could not have anticipated,” Broyd writes. “It also changed my life, my plans, my dreams.”

In Backpack, Jacket, Surfboard, Broyd shares vivid travel encounters and moments of humor and humanity drawn from towns and trails across America. From awe-inspiring landscapes to chance conversations, each story serves as a mirror — capturing not only a changing country but a man shaped by time, choices, and experience.

“How could a country provide such a diversity of vistas, of landscapes, of experiences and ways of being?” Broyd writes. “It had all been very overwhelming, but so exciting, so remarkable. I met a myriad of people, had such incredible learning experiences, and accumulated stories to be shared for a lifetime.”
Broyd notes that people often define themselves by where they grew up, whether that was the streets of the Bronx, the cornfields of Iowa, or a mining town in South Wales. He tells readers that it is not just places, but experiences that form us as individuals and that lay the real foundation for who we become.
For him, hitchhiking across America as a young man was such an experience — and he didn’t realize to what degree until he made that return trip decades later.

“Over time,” he writes, “I started to recognize that stories which had initially been silly anecdotes worth a quick retelling over a beer may have had a more profound impact on forming the person that I became and that I am today. That trip had been my education. Those stories were still me.”

About Graham Broyd
Graham Broyd, author of Backpack, Jacket, Surfboard: My Journey Across America, Then and Now, is a British-American businessman, writer, and athlete. Broyd worked for nearly 40 years in international banking, with his time spent mostly between New York and London. He retired in 2024. Broyd earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Birmingham in England, where he studied international relations. Broyd’s first book, The Panama Canal Treaties: The Diplomacy and Economics Behind the Treaty that Changed the International Order, was published in 2024.

About Advantage Books
Advantage Books is an imprint of the publishing arm of Advantage Media. For two decades, Advantage Books has helped CEOs, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and other professionals share their expertise and build their Authority by writing a book. Over the years, Advantage has given these authors an alternative to traditional nonfiction publishing. Advantage authors are leaders who have credentials and expertise to share, combined with a strong reputation in their industry. Advantage Books provides these authors with a team of experts to assist in such areas as book concept and developmental writing, editorial and design, printing and distribution, and promotions.

Shandi Thompson
Advantage Books
8133959606 ext.
sthompson@forbesbooks.com

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