‘My home’s a converted lorry on a business park and I live on £25 a week’
THE 70-YEAR-OLD NOVEL WRITER WHO LIVES WITHOUT MAINS ELECTRICITY, RUNNING WATER AND GAS
FORMER handyman Mike Leaver, 70, has lived an eventful life.
Now retired, he lives in a converted static lorry, residing on a business park in Porthmadog.
He passes the time by writing novels. His lifestyle means he has no mains electricity, mains water or central heating, and he is able to live on around £25 per week –most of which is spent on laundry costs.
Despite an aversion to anything to do with telephones or computers, he still has a small laptop for writing on.
How Mike wound up living such an unusual life goes back to his childhood, and evolved over the 60 years that followed.
Mike’s adventures took him around the world, leading to some wonderful highs, but also some challenging lows, before find the peace and happiness he has in life now.
His life started with his parents in Birmingham among the bomb sites of the post-war city, though he suffered from asthma and persistent chest complaints and was soon shipped off to a more rural boarding school, which he referred to as a “dumping ground” for weaklings.
Mike hated the school’s cruelty, causing his mum to move him down to a Somerset caravan before being moved over to a comprehensive school’s “delicate” unit, where he finished his studies.
Even after escaping the beatings of his old school, Mike reflected on his time there and on what, if anything, running away from something teaches us.
If it’s escaping from state boarding school masters – who fervently believe that corporal punishment beatings or bully-boy boxing matches are the best form of discipline – then, he says, it avoids a great deal of physical pain.
He endured many canings as a child and young teenager, so did his utmost to run away as often as possible.
After escaping school, Mike’s lifestyle became truly eccentric, as he ended up converting a flat in an industrial warehouse, living on a houseboat, and even ended up sleeping and eating in an office and spending a few days in an estate car, before winding up back in another houseboat.
Converting this boat in many ways was the cause for him later switching to lorry life, as it allowed him the freedom to come and go as he chose and to take on his favourite pastimes of mountaineering, rock climbing, potholing and sailing.
Workwise, Mike always kept himself busy working a wide range of jobs from a laboratory technician to a corporate events co-ordintor, and even spent time as a captain for a pleasure boat company before owning his own company for a time as a motorcycle dealer.
Sadly his company failed, but he took advantage of the Government’s Unemployment Re-Training Scheme to retrain himself as a writer, something he had long wished to do.
After this Mike bought a lorry and began converting it, adding extensions and improvements over time. He has now lived in his immobile truck – which does have a kitchen, bed-sitting room, and even a roof-garden for 30 years.
The last 20 have been on an unused access road between a factory and a builders’ merchant’s yard, after his truck broke down there and is still on that spot. Because of this Mike has become a wellknown character around his adopted home of Porthmadog.
Mike, said: “I like Porthmadog so much, mainly because it is a lovely friendly town and community, with easy access to walking and climbing in magnificent Snowdonia - but also the stunning coastline and sea on my doorstep. It has a lively mix of local Welsh, resident English, and visitors from overseas, as well as a short but fascinating history of industrial heritage.
“And the Welsh language is still strong here which adds much to the area’s distinctive culture.” Mike originally came to Porthmadog having discovered the charms of neighbouring Tremadog 20 years earlier on a walking and mountaineering holiday.
He said: “As a committed vegetarian and recycler – who has never owned a television or been tempted to consumerism – I keep my living expenses extremely low.
“For example, I burn scrap wood, heat my shower water on gas rings, and eat cauliflower leaves with gravy.
“I hope to persuade others to pursue this path to happiness, especially in these harsh economic, social, and environmental times.”
Now focusing on his writing from his van, Mike’s books explore dozens of powerful theme, such as those of power, perversion and coercion versus loyalty, friendliness and collaboration, alongside relationships, homelessness and unrequited love, all matters he has dealt with personally through his life.
Coming out on May 28, his third fiction novel Newspaper Curtains follows two teenage girls from opposite sides of the tracks in 1960s Midlands England who are forced into prostitution.
When writing, Mike imagines a friendly reader sitting in an armchair, laughing - and occasionally crying – while he tries to give them advice on how to start their own life of happiness.
His top tip is to get rid of their television and learn, instead, to play board games such as Scrabble with family or friends.
As for Mike, he hopes in 10 years’ time he’ll still be able and healthy enough to live in his truck.