We’ve all seen those television programmes about restoring ruined old buildings. The roof and windows are usually missing, with muddy puddles where the floorboards should be. ‘We’ll have it rebuilt by Christmas,’ the earnest restorer says, before embarking on a project that almost ends in bankruptcy and insanity. I don’t have a ruined building, but I do have a ruined camper van.
One day, after an indeterminate amount of hard graft and money, my 1972 Dormobile will be truly glorious, a cosy home from home in which to explore foreign lands and distant horizons. Right now, though, it is a leaky, rusty old shed with no floors and a seized engine. When the wind whistles through its tattered tarpaulin covers, the glassfibre bodywork shudders. That doesn’t seem to put off…