The Man in the Tent: My Life Under Canvas – The First Four Years – Tony Beardsall - 5 stars

[Linda C]

I was thoroughly impressed with this account of Tony Beardsall's conversion to a life of camping. At 51, in 2004 he loses his job to downsizing and his wife leaves him for another man. He is forced to sell his house and ends up in a dumpy flat in a Lancashire town in northwest England having little success finding a job and drinking too much. Good friends Paul and Sue offer him a room in their house. He's reluctant considering it charity. They encourage him to try camping since he has free time and it would be a good way to clear his head and think about what he wants to do. He meets Malcolm who does a lot of camping and gets more insights. Over time he makes it his life and you get to see how his life is transformed.

It is not a lifestyle I would ever choose but this explains how it all came about. Tony is writing this in 2017 after 12 years of camping and still going. It ends as he sets off to camp in Spain, the setting of his second book and the third covers living in France and Albania. I am definitely going to read them as well.