It Started with a Van : A true story of a home on wheels built on hope, carpet glue and decent brews

Author: Andy and Claire Stocks

Travel writing

Published on 16 July 2026 by Swift Press in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 304 pages
129 x 198 x 26 | 280g

What do you do when your car breaks down during a pandemic, nobody will fix it, and you end up buying a carpenter's van with no windows, no experience, and absolutely no idea what you're doing?If you're Andy, you convert it into a campervan. You install a diesel heater, carpet the walls, put a coffee machine on the worktop, and drive to Lake Como.

If you are Claire, you make a lot of tea.

It Started with a Van is the true story of how a faulty Mercedes, a bolt that took two weeks and angle grinder to remove, and a YouTube channel that started with five views led two people from Barnsley on the adventure they never planned and couldn't stop having. It is a book about a van, a marriage, a dog called Pablo, and the difference between vision and reality.

Told in two voices, with no agreement on the timeline and considerable disagreement about most of the details.

The authors live in Barnsley.