Charging Around

Clive Wilkinson

Exploring the edges of England by electric car

‘Tense, funny...and electric’ Sunday Times

Having crossed a continent by train and sailed around the world by container ship, Clive Wilkinson has always had a penchant for slow travel. As his eightieth birthday approaches, he and his wife Joan set out on a new expedition: to tour the edges of England by electric car. How hard could that be?

Given the parlous state of the country’s charge-point infrastructure back in 2018, the answer turns out to be ‘very’. In a 1,900-mile odyssey through fading seaside towns, rainswept hilltop passes and England’s only desert, each day’s driving for these unlikely pioneers is overshadowed by a cloud of apprehension. Will they make it to the next charge point? Will it be in working order? Will someone else be using it?

You could only undertake such a trip with a calm temperament and robust sense of humour. Fortunately Clive has both. With a relentless curiosity for history, geography and, above all, people, he and Joan explore the reality of life on England’s periphery – the ‘left behind’ areas that, by voting for Brexit, changed the course of British history – making new friends with every mile.

‘A delightful, original, amusing tour of some of the UK’s less explored places’ Chris Mullin

‘A mix of travelogue, light-touch social commentary and quirky gems of history. A diverting exploration of life in the slow lane’ Saga Magazine

‘The subtitle could equally well have been “a journey in search of a working and compatible charging point”. Frequently hilarious and highly recommended’ The Bookbag

‘There’s nothing not to like about Charging Around, one of the best travel books I’ve read of late. Clive Wilkinson is a genuinely comic writer, devoid of arrogance and self-pity. He is a genial travel companion – confident, but never didactic. I was sorry when the journey ended’ E&T Magazine

‘As the journey progresses, you realise that, if good travel writing is all about things going horribly wrong, there’s no better way, short of a three-legged donkey, to set out than by electric car’ Simon Hacker, Stroud Times

Paperback: 304pp

Published: Eye (April 2023)

ISBN: 9781785633454