Welcome to Willma’s Travels, part of creatingtheatre.uk. As a new widower in late 2023, I decided to carry on with our camping, but realised I wouldn’t be able to tow a caravan. After some research, ended up buying Willma: partly for the numberplate, partly for the cordless charger; but mostly as a reliable and capable platform for travelling the world, or at least a small part of it. And while I was at it, I decided to keep a journal, partly to remind me where I’d been, and online so that close family and friends could follow my exploits.

I set myself three objects: to write something of a travelogue; to reflect on the practice of campervanning; and to have a way of expressing an inner monologue dealing with the complicated and sometimes painful business of grieving for my partner of 47 years. The travelling, the outdoors, and the diary interacted all as part of healing.

As a former theatre worker – I was a stage manager, then lecturer, I am fascinated by storytelling; and in finding the right voice for the narrator. I have been equally interested in what D.H.Lawrence called the Spirit of Place, and known in some circles as psychogeography: the effect that landscape whether natural or manmade, ancient or modern, has on the soul. And, like any wanderer, my eye gets caught by the odd, the inconsequential, the unconsidered trifle; like Autolycus in the Winter’s Tale, I snaffle them up.

Hope you enjoy.

Julian