This book tells of the story of Sprite caravans, from early primitive designs to the sophisticated Sprite of today. It describes how one man - Sam Alper OBE - was driven to provide the caravanning public with cheap affordable holidays, by bringing the VW/Ford mass-production ethos to the caravan industry.

From the original horse-drawn caravan to the sophisticated and well-appointed luxury leisure vehicle we know today, this book follows the dynamic evolution of the touring caravan over the last century. Using a selection of images from his archive, expert Andrew Jenkinson reveals how technical advances as well as interior design revolutionised the touring caravan in the United Kingdom, and how caravanning became a culture and a lifestyle choice. Covering well-known brands such as Eccles, Sprite, Swift and Bailey, this lively and informative book will appeal to caravan enthusiasts and social historians alike, and rekindle happy memories for anyone who has holidayed in a touring caravan.

The changing fortunes of the largest UK producer of caravans and motorhomes

“Sleeplessness gets the Susan Sontag illness-as-metaphor treatment in this pensive, compact, lyrical inquiry into the author’s nighttime demons.” —Kirkus Reviews In 2016, Samantha Harvey began to lose sleep. She tried everything to appease her wakefulness: from medication to therapy, changes in her diet to changes in her living arrangements. Nothing seemed to help. The Shapeless Unease is Harvey’s darkly funny and deeply intelligent anatomy of her insomnia, an immersive interior monologue of a year without one of the most basic human needs. Original and profound, and narrated with a lucid breathlessness, this is a startlingly insightful exploration of memory, writing and influence, death and the will to survive, from “this generation’s Virginia Woolf” (Telegraph). “Captures the essence of fractious emotions—anxiety, fear, grief, rage—in prose so elegant, so luminous, it practically shines from the page. Harvey is a hugely talented writer, and this is a book to relish.” —Sarah Waters, New York Times–bestselling author “Harvey writes with hypnotic power and poetic precision about—well, about everything: grief, pain, memory, family, the night sky, a lake at sunset, what it means to dream and what it means to suffer and survive . . . The big surprise is that this book about ‘shapeless unease’ is, in the end, a glittering, playful and, yes, joyful celebration of that glorious gift of glorious life.” —Daily Mail “What a spectacularly good book. It is so controlled and yet so wild . . . easily one of the truest and best books I’ve read about what it’s like to be alive now, in this country.” —Max Porter, award-winning author of Lanny

The inside story of the company that pioneered the modern touring caravan and motorhome

Miniature vintage and classic caravans ¿ otherwise known as `tinies¿ and `teardrops¿ ¿ have become hugely popular in recent years, due to their dinkiness and versatility. The good use of compact spaces and the appeal of quality design have always caught Don and Marilyn Jessen¿s imagination, and their travels have connected them with a wide variety of people at the forefront of the `tinies¿ and `teardrops¿ movement. This book pulls together a collection of these small but perfectly formed mobile spaces from across Australia and New Zealand.