Warwick Stubbs at Wai-iti Recreational Reserve Photo: supplied
“You don’t look like someone who sleeps in a car!” is a phrase writer Warwick Stubbs often hears from his peers and one he rejects. Stubbs isn’t interested in societal norms and admits he wrote a few chapters of his new book - Two Left Feet from his car passenger seat.
Some find it hard to believe the poet and author chooses to live in his car. He got the idea from a nomadic colleague while working at a box assembling factory in Motueka.
One day he quit, stopped flatting, paying rent and simplified his life; packing up his trusty Subaru Outback and setting up camp alongside the river.
Diet is another misconception. People assume he eats poorly, buys takeaways and eats dehydrated food. Instead Warwick’s diet is less processed and finds he consumes little wheat and dairy products simply because they don’t keep very well in his boot.
Stubb’s found the first few months living in his car difficult and cold but somehow found a way to overcome his depressive episodes through focusing on his gift for writing.
A healthy meal Warwick Stubbs cooked inside his car Photo: Supplied
Two Left Feet has a unique structure, mixing journal entries, poems and short stories. The reader traverses the South Island alongside the book's two central characters, an L300 Van and Miss Sherlock who travel through Cromwell, Queenstown, Alexandra, Lake Onslow and Mapua.
Warwick wrote the book in public libraries, park benches and in his vehicle and in local writing workshops. He acknowledges the writing community in the Tasman region is a welcoming place free of judgement and has been helpful in developing his work.
Like his previous book The Tasman Journey, Two Left Feet is self published under the name Warshell Publishing.
You can order Stubbs's book here
Author Warwick Stubbs Photo: supplied
Author Warwick Stubbs setting up camp outside the van he writes about in his book Two Left Feet Photo: supplied
