A novel life

Mike Leaver wrote his three saga novels – the latest called ‘Newspaper Curtains’ – and his amazing-but-true autobiography ‘Yeti Seeks Mate’ largely on a laptop by candlelight in his truck. It has no electricity, mains water, or central heating, and he studiously lives on around £25 a week in Porthmadog, Gwynedd.

As a committed vegetarian and recycler – who has never owned a television or been tempted to consumerism –pensioner Mike, 70, hopes to persuade others to pursue his low-cost path to happiness.

Originally from the West Midlands, Mike’s chosen lifestyle has evolved over 60 years. He started with his parents in a council house; then in a seaside caravan; got a job and made a flat in an industrial warehouse; moved on to a houseboat; spent a few days in an estate car... and finally converted a lorry!

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

“I had a motorbike and then a three-wheeler car to get around,” he explains. “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 23 years.”

As well as various careers, Mike is a self-taught craftsman. He has also enjoyed four epic trekking and mountain climbing adventures overseas, and is an active University Of The Third Age (U3A) member, playing table tennis and chess.

Mike’s early-years were among the bomb sites of post-war Birmingham council estates. Asthma meant he went to a more rural boarding school – a ‘dumping ground’ for weaklings. But Mike hated the school’s cruelty so much, his mum eventually moved him to a comprehensive school’s ‘delicate’ unit, mostly with girls. Many there thought he was weird, but he began to nervously interact with them in his own naïve way.

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

“Following the launches of my ‘Yeti’ lifestory, and two other saga novels –‘Nork from Nowhere’ and ‘The Ice Cream Terrorist’ – which are mostly about orphans escaping cruel institutions to create a better future – I’m now addicted to creative writing and the joy it brings to readers,” concludes Mike.

“Newspaper Curtains was born purely from a childish game the teenage girls played in my school class. I just imagined ‘what if’, and the story – set partly in North Wales – formed from there.” n

NEWSPAPER CURTAINS: Who Really Knows What Lies Behind?

Two teenage girls – clever Janet and spoiled Priscilla – from opposite sides of the tracks in 1960s Midlands England are forced into prostitution in this engrossing tale of loss, liberty and love. A handsome, young English teacher and his corrupting father become embroiled in their tortuous journeys. But then a smart heroine Tara fatefully enters the fray on a secret detective mission. This saga combines a struggle against repression, with both feminine and asexual insights into love to produce a thought-provoking, yet stylishly old-fashioned, romantic rollercoaster. Price: £9.99. The Book Guild Ltd. ISBN: 9781915603173