Charging Around

'Tense, funny - electric' - Sunday Times
‘A delightful, original, amusing tour of some of the UK’s less explored places’ – Chris Mullin

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.