For so many reasons I loved being immersed in the chaotic world of Jacqueline (Jackie) Lambert as she shared her unexpected adventures through the back roads of England in a humongous 30 year old, six-wheel army lorry!
More Manchester than Mongolia is a warm, hilarious and must-read memoir as wanderlust enthusiast Jackie relates her travels alongside her husband Mark (a fellow wanderlust enthusiast) and their four beloved dogs.
When their plans to embark on an overland adventure to Mongolia are halted due to the COVID pandemic, they find themselves stranded at home in the UK, but ‘homeless’ as they have sold their flat, and because of the pandemic restrictions, renting is not an option. Their only option is to embark on an adventure throughout the UK in ‘The Beast,’ their beloved and VERY, VERY LARGE 1990 Volvo N10 expedition truck that they bought online from the Belgian army, which they chose to do up themselves with a lot of help.
What follows is a fantastic adventure full of true characters and many sudden changes of plans to deal with the unforeseen mishaps along the way. This is a truly lovely and captivating read that had me laughing so much. Jackie’s style of writing is warm, captivating and full of wit.
One of the aspects of More Manchester than Mongolia that I particularly enjoyed is all the factual nuggets that Jackie includes throughout her writing of each area her and Mark visited on their travels. As well as writing these details in such a comedic, refreshing style, they are also truly fascinating! For example, when I was glued to the TV watching Sally Wainwright’s drama Happy Valley set in the Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge, I did wonder more than once why the award winning, hard hitting drama was called Happy Valley. Now, thanks to this feel-good memoir I know why.
Thank you Jackie Lambert for entertaining me so much with your fantastic adventure. Thank you also to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to the blog tour of this great memoir.
To follow the blog tour, please see below.
More Manchester than Mongolia is released on 5 December 2025, so is available to read now.
