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Slow travel for idlers
Readers are rightly tiring of tales of wacky journeys from publishers seeking to repeat the success of Tony Hawks' book Round Ireland with a Fridge. But Three Men in a Float (John Murray, £12.99) is about a journey with a purpose - the authors, Dan Kieran and Ian Vince, work for The Idler magazine, and believe that life is more pleasurable when you slow down, get out of your car and off the beaten track.
Not everyone would choose to do this in a milk float, built in Cowley's Morris car factory in 1958, sold to Birmingham Airport after being pensioned off by Express Dairies, and then bought by the authors on eBay. But in their search for slow travel, the authors discovered a 'Milko' group on the Internet, and the die was cast.
The journey, from Lowestoft on the east coast to Land's End, was slowed down by the need to recharge the batteries for eight hours for every two hours they spent on the road. But usually they manage, with the help of Milko members - including Clive Burke in Dorchester-on-Thames - and the kindness of friends and the kindness of strangers.
Having thought of the title Three Men in a Float, they naturally stop at Ewelme to pay homage to the grave of Jerome K. Jerome. Like everyone else, they are enchanted by the historic almshouses, and the quintessential atmosphere of rural England. But they are outraged by the epitaph on his tombstone: "For We Are Labourers, Together With God: Corinthians III, 9"
As they point out, the incorrigible idler, whose Three Men in a Boat encapsulated the wish for slow travel and leisure in a fast-moving world, would have been horrified.
11:54am Thursday 8th May 2008
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