Why I wrote How Katie Pulled Boris

[Keith]

Travel whether it is to some far-flung part of the world or to a new area of your own town is undeniably an experience a memory generator. You can shed all social trappings and be who you want to be and if you give up your job to travel the effect is magnified many fold. OK that’s the highbrow stuff. I gave up my high pressure job and on a whim bought a monster American Winnebago-style motorhome so my wife and I could go touring around Europe for six-months at a time. She was aghast. She thought retirement travel would be cheap flights but comfortable hotels. She hated anything mechanical – and based on previous exploits believed it would always breakdown. A 48-foot combination of a monster motorhome towing our little Mercedes car was a stiff challenge for her particularly when the width is at the legal limit. Having bought the motorhome I realised I would have to take 2 HGV tests then with one weekends experience we set off to France and Spain. We made many mistakes and there were many incidents that others seem to regard as humorous like getting stuck in a toll booth, emptying 35-gallons of toilet waste down a pipe that had developed holes, my wife riding on the roof so we could pass under fairy-light entrance decorations and so it went on and on. ‘Keith you should write a book about it all,’ was a frequent comment – so I did. One reviewer described it as more of a how not to do it than a how to do it book. It’s no great literary work but others have found it enjoyable to read and unable to put it down once started. I’m into my second book now.