Maggie Gee, Lost children, Flamingo Modern Classic/ Collins, 1994, p. 42.

..then stiffly, then quickly again, more quickly than ever to make up for the stiffness and get her on the road in yet another battered van.

They were like caddis shells, those vans; things that promised a new stage of life. One broke down and another one arrived, scarred but jaunty, a house for the soul . She still drove round the steep hill roads with a collection of gaudy clothes in the back, some home-made, some bought at a discount, a few picked up at jumble sales, washed and mended. People these days, she sometimes complained, didn’t seem to see the beauty of synthetics, how easily they washed, how you didn’t …