I am thrilled to announce that More Manchester Than Mongolia: An Unexpected Road Trip Through Back Road Britain, my new humorous travel memoir will be released as an eBook and Paperback on Friday 5th December 2025 – in time for Christmas.
The ebook is available at the special launch price of 99p/99c in the UK, USA, Europe, and Australia
A LIMITED NUMBER of Advance Review (ARC) Copies are available FREE on Booksprout on a first come first served basis. To obtain one, you must join the site and agree to post an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads &/or Bookbub by the specified date.
More Manchester Than Mongolia: An Unexpected Road Trip Through Back Road Britain is the second book in my Wayward Truck series. It documents our first year on wheels in The Beast, the expedition truck we bought sight unseen off the internet and converted into a home-on-wheels fit for a trip to Mongolia.
Although it is the sequel to Building The Beast: How (Not) To Build An Overland Camper, which documents the build, both books are standalone tales.
It’s been a difficult birth, what with my husband skiing off a mountain on my birthday and breaking his leg! Acting as full-time carer to him and The Fab Four, our four pooches, gave me little time to write, which put paid to blogging and delayed the launch.
However, early feedback has been very positive, with one reviewer, Drew Johnson, author of the Andalucian Adventures series, stating:
“I haven’t laughed so much at the written word since Pam Ayres released Some of Me Poetry in 1976!”
Blurb:
When Jackie and Mark bought a 1990 ex-army truck sight unseen off the internet, they planned the ultimate overland adventure to Mongolia with their four dogs. But when COVID-19 slammed shut international borders – it rerouted their dream.
Stranded in the U.K, they tackled life on the road in a home-built truck laughably over-engineered for the quaint English countryside. What follows is a laugh-out-loud British road trip, full of mishaps, mechanical mayhem – and the discovery of hidden marvels in their homeland.
Blending travel tales with dogs, wit, and heart, More Manchester than Mongolia proves that the best adventures are often the ones you never plan. Perfect for fans of Bill Bryson, Ben Aitken, and Jenny Eclair, this is a funny, feel-good memoir of resilience, rediscovery, and finding that sometimes, the best adventures are the ones we never intended to take.
To find all my books, and early reviews for Manchester on Goodreads, check out the links below – and while you’re there, if you mark Manchester as ‘Want to read’, it will really help me with the algorithms!
We’re currently at large in The Beast, our self-converted 24.5 tonne Volvo N10 Army Truck, heading slowly towards Morocco!
If you want to keep up with our travels as they happen, why not follow to my blog and get updates straight into your inbox? Now that I no longer have full-time caring duties, I am hoping to get back to blogging regularly about our travels.
World Wide Walkies 
Congratulations Jacqueline, I look forward to reading it.
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Thank you, Janet. I hope you enjoy it when you do! Particularly since you’ve seen The Beast ‘in person’! 🙂
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Congratulations on another book 👏
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Thank you! Number 8. I’ll be in double figures soon 🙂
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A massive congratulations for pulling it all off, Jackie!!! You keep amazing me. Wishing you success with the launch and the sales of “Manchester”. Xox
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Thank you so much, Liesbet.
My chums ‘down under’ tell me that Manchester is synonymous with bedlinen! It seems they have whole departments called Manchester in stores. I am guessing that it’s because all the cotton milled in Lancashire (my home county) was exported from the port in Manchester!
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The blurb describes your “Manchester” as a trove of humor. What’s not to love about that? 🙂
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Thank you! I do my best to incite giggles 🙂
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🥳 looking forward to December 5th 🥳
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Thank you, Donna. I hope you enjoy it when it comes 🙂
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I look forward to reading & reviewing! And I have to thank you for leading me to BookSprout–I’d never heard of it, but it sounds like just the thing to get some interest and reviews going. (I’ve been doing a home-grown version of their sort of campaign—offering a free book to anyone who will post an honest review on whatever platform they write or “cast” on—but I’m thinking BookSprout will have a wider reach…) Cheers! 🙂
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My absolute pleasure, Kana.
Although Booksprout is best known to be most heavily focused on romance, fantasy, and sci-fi, I’ve had quote a bit of success with my humorous non-fiction travel memoirs, and have picked up a couple of non-fiction books to review for others.
Like most things, it gets more successful over time – I’ve done a couple of campaigns on there now and have a ‘team’ who have reviewed my books before, and are notified when I upload a new one. I usually run campaings for new releases – it can be tricky with Amazon if you’re enrolled in KU, since you’re not supposed to have your book available elsewhere. Since most of my sales come from the Zon and half of them from KU, I don’t want to fall foul of their rules!
I wish you every success with your books! If there’s anything I can do to help you promote them, let me know. I know how hard it is 🙂 All the best, Jackie
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Congratulations!! Amazing!!
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Thank you so much, Barbara!
Here’s hopin’ for a successful launch on 5th December. 🙂
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