My Life & Writing

I'm a retired handyman who writes books for pleasure. My lorry-home has no electricity, mains water, or central-heating, and I studiously live on around £40 a week in Porthmadog, Gwynedd.

As a committed recycler – who has never owned a television or been tempted to consumerism – I hope to persuade others to pursue my low-cost path to happiness.

Originally from the West Midlands, my chosen lifestyle has evolved over six decades. I started with my parents in a council house; then in a seaside caravan; got a job and made a flat in an industrial warehouse; moved a houseboat; spent a week in an estate car...and finally converted a lorry!

I spent lots of time and money converting my boat into a house. But when it eventually sank, homeless I survived in its recovered hulk by cannibalising it over three years!

I had a motorbike and then a three-wheeler car to get around. But I gradually realised I wanted to be more comfortable while travelling to enjoy mountaineering, rock climbing, potholing, and sailing. And to have somewhere safe to write about it.

So I bought a truck to convert. I have lived in my now-immobile lorry – which does have a kitchen, bed-sitting room, and even a roof-garden – in lovely Porthmadog for 24 years.

(Credit Metropolis, Human; and Alvaro Alvarez Ricciardelli.)

I have just starred in an international TV documentary which explains how I live on only 47 Euros a week! Filmed for Dutch TV internet channel Metropolis, their Human 'Housing Emergency' video - which also includes homes issues in Peru and Nigeria - describes how, with no water, electricity, or internet, I live off-grid in my old truck which I bought 30 years ago for just £1,600. It's the perfect way to live for me and I hope to continue for another decade. Watch the original video here

Similarly, there are two 30-minute interviews about my lifestyle, book-writing, and outdoor adventures on the following programmes broadcast recently:

Talk Radio Europe
https://www.talkradioeurope.com/clients/mleaver300824.mp3

Bangor Hospital Radio Ysbtyty Gwynedd
https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioYsbytyGwynedd/yvonne-gallienne-263-listen-again-1/


As well as various careers – including as a laboratory technician, garage company accountant, and pleasure-boat captain in Worcester in the 1980s – I am a self-taught craftsman.

My early-years were among the bomb sites of post-war Birmingham council estates. Asthma meant I went to a more rural boarding school – a 'dumping ground' for weaklings.

But I hated the school's military-style discipline so much, my mum eventually moved me to a comprehensive school's 'delicate' unit, mostly with girls. Many there thought I was weird, but I began to nervously interact with them in my own naïve way.

And finally, although I became very close friends with several ladies through work, somehow my lack of confidence meant I could only ever write about falling hopelessly in love.

Now, I am an active University Of The Third Age (U3A) member, playing table tennis and chess. And I’m addicted to creative writing and the joy it brings to readers.