Why I wrote a book about car-free adventures

The Tweet that started it all, and writing the book you need

I didn’t pass my driving test until I was almost 30.

My mum had offered to pay for a few lessons for my 18th birthday but my motivation was low at the time. I would have still had to cover the rest of the cost of learning which felt pointless given there was no way I could afford a car at the end of it, not on the £4.28 an hour I earned working Saturdays in WHSmith. I ended up trading in the lessons for an interrailing pass to travel around Europe (on brand, it turned out). I went to uni, where hardly anybody I knew had a car, then moved to London afterwards, where the situation was the same. Learning to drive didn’t feel like a pressing concern.

When I moved to Bristol in late 2019, I thought it might finally be time. Then the pandemic hit, driving lessons were cancelled and you weren’t allowed to travel anywhere anyway. I threw myself head first into exploring every scenic place within walking or cycling distance of my new front door. It helped that I’d been put on furlough from my jo…