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It Started with a Van
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781800757820
Publisher: Swift Press
Published: Jul 16 2026
Pages: 306
Weight: 0.66
Height: 0.69 Width: 5.06 Depth: 7.81
Language: English
What do you do when your car breaks down during a pandemic, nobody will fix it, and you end up buying a carpenter's van with no windows, no experience, and absolutely no idea what you're doing?
If you're Andy, you convert it into a campervan. You install a diesel heater, carpet the walls, put a coffee machine on the worktop, and drive to Lake Como.
If you are Claire, you make a lot of tea.
It Started with a Van is the true story of how a faulty Mercedes, a bolt that took two weeks and angle grinder to remove, and a YouTube channel that started with five views led two people from Barnsley on the adventure they never planned and couldn't stop having. It is a book about a van, a marriage, a dog called Pablo, and the difference between vision and reality.
Told in two voices, with no agreement on the timeline and considerable disagreement about most of the details.
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