AN ECCENTRIC author hopes his amazing but true life-story will inspire readers to discover their own frugal path to happiness in these tough times.

Porthmadog writer Mike Leaver believes sections of his intriguingly-titled autobiography Yeti Seeks Mate: In Pursuit Of Dreams can help many to tackle the cost of living crisis.

Single Mike, 69, lives off-grid in a converted, static truck on the town’s Penamser business park. His lorry broke down there 15 years ago and never moved. It has no electricity, mains water, or central-heating, and he studiously spends just £25 a week, including launderette costs and his hobbies.

He says: “As a committed vegetarian and recycler – who has never owned a television or been tempted to consumerism – I keep my living expenses extremely low. For example, I burn scrap wood, heat my shower water on gas rings, and eat cauliflower leaves with gravy. I hope to persuade others to pursue this path to happiness, especially in these harsh economic, social, and environmental times.”

His eagerly-awaited life-story is now available for limited local sale-only, from the independent Browser’s Book Shop in Porthmadog, ahead of its official UK launch in late August.

Mike says: “I feature Porthmadog a great deal in Yeti, mainly because it is a lovely friendly town and community, with easy access to walking and climbing in magnificent Snowdonia, but also the stunning coastline and sea on my doorstep. Porthmadog has a lively mix of local Welsh, resident English, and visitors from overseas, as well as a short but fascinating history of industrial heritage. And the Welsh language is still strong here which adds much to the area’s distinctive culture.”

Like Alan Bennett’s eccentric Lady in The Van, Mike has become a well-known character in his adopted home in Snowdonia. He got the unusual Yeti title of his autobiography from a personal ad he published in a national mountaineering magazine when he was 28.

From an asthmatic childhood spent on post-war Birmingham bomb-sites, Mike left boarding school to take on work as a lab technician, accountant, pleasure-boat captain, and local builder.

In Yeti he describes febrile office politics and romances in the 1980s, being a homeless hermit inhabiting a derelict boat surrounded by drug addicts, and some of his death-defying escapades as a solo adventurer/mountaineer in the UK, Scandinavia and North Africa.

Mike has written two novels; Nork From Nowhere and The Ice Cream Terrorist. He recently submitted his third modern fiction novel – a captivating 100,000-word tale of conflict, justice, comedy, and romance largely set in Gwynedd. He hopes it will be published next spring.

In the last three years he has written around 500,000 words in five books - including a second part of his life-story specifically about outdoor adventure survival – both at home (largely on a laptop by candlelight) and at Porthmadog’s Library and Glaslyn Leisure Centre.

Mike is an active University Of The Third Age (U3A) Porthmadog branch member. Each week he enjoys table tennis and chess. He was recently featured by well-known local photographer Terry Mills on the front cover of their magazine.

Mike is attending a book/craft fair at Tyddyn Mawr Tea Rooms in Cwmystradllyn on Saturday and Sunday, 23 to 24 July.

Publishers Book Guild invites Yeti readers to “embark on the extraordinary journey of an eccentric pursuing dreams of love, writing, and the path to happiness in a memoir that’s as charming as it is honest and quirky”.

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