Road trip in a Renault 5 gives author a novel idea

Rebecca Faller used diaries from her trip in 1990 to write her novel, Renault 5

In the summer of 1990, Rebecca Faller and a couple of friends met in their local pub, the Coal Exchange, and decided to go on a road trip across Europe.

They saved up some cash, bought an old Renault 5 and got on the ferry to France two days before Christmas.

There began a six-month journey which Rebecca, who now lives in Gibraltar, turned into a novel, Renault 5.

She will be appearing at Blackwell’s, in Portsmouth, on Saturday for the launch of the autobiographical work.

Rebecca said: ‘The car became our home while we travelled to France, Andorra, Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco and Portugal meeting colourful characters and experiencing good old-fashioned sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll along the way.

‘Every night we chronicled our adventures in diaries along with sketches and cartoons of the places and the people we met.’

The autobiographical comic novella combines the three diaries.

Rebecca, a mother-of-four, added; ‘While I was living this experience I knew I wanted to write the story with the hope of it one day being made into an English buddy road trip film.

‘Real life got in the way and I didn’t get my chance to work fully on the novel until 2013.

‘I locked myself away for a week with the three original diaries and set to work.

‘Because of the amount of detail I had to hand, it was easy to recreate that early-90s atmosphere.

‘The novel is loaded with cultural references, songs of the time and even some Pompey colloquialisms.’

Renault 5 will be launched at Blackwell’s, Cambridge Road, Portsmouth, at 11am.

All are welcome to attend.

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