Never Mind the Bullocks: One Girl's 10,000 Km Adventure Around India in the Worlds Cheapest Car

"Terrific and terrifying in equal measure: a life-affirming, death-welcoming journey around the world's most dangerous roads in a wheeled toaster oven."—Tim Moore, author of French Revolutions

"Vanessa Able is doggedly intrepid, deliciously acerbic, keenly inquisitive and quite possibly mental."—Time Out India

Newly single travel writer Vanessa Able is back home living with her parents when she hatches an idea she hopes will set her life on a new trajectory. She's going to drive the circumference of India in the cheapest car in the world, the Tata Nano, symbol of the aspirations of India's new, rising middle class.

What ensues is a hilarious, high-octane adventure. Taking any help she can get—from loopy spiritual gurus to professional driving instructors—she drives her way around an alien road network through India's white-knuckle traffic. Narrowly escaping death by truck, she also comes to appreciate the true kings of the dusty tarmac: the bullocks. En route, she falls hopelessly in love with a mathematician named Thor who might be the worst driver she's ever met. Will they survive unexpected sheep-jams, a car full of elephant slime, and the endless cacophony of horns?

Vanessa Able began her travel-writing career as a correspondent for an English-language weekly in post-Saddam Iraq. She then settled in Turkey where she became editor-in-chief of Time Out Istanbul. Able has written for National Geographic Traveler, Esquire, and the New York Times. Her love affair with driving continued as she drove a Yugo through Serbia, a Chevy through the American deserts, and a pimped-out Jeep Grand Cherokee in the abysmal traffic of Mexico City. Vanessa lives between Rome and Jersey with her husband, Thor.

“Ables tone is humorous and likeable, and her brazenness in embarking on such a trip is inspiring.”—Bust magazine

"Terrific and terrifying in equal measure: a life-affirming, death-welcoming journey around the worlds most dangerous roads in a wheeled toaster oven."—Tim Moore, author of Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy

"Able's 10,000 km road trip trundles through the bits often left out of tourist itineraries - with a few romantic divergencies - creating a rich snapshot of a colossal country."—Wanderlust

"Engrossing... Not since Trudy Culross's epic, It Gets Better After Cairo, 26 years ago, has a gung-ho female adventurer made chaos seem like such fun." -Scotsman Books of the Year

"An exhilarating, funny and thoughtful travelogue. For good measure, Never Mind the Bullocks throws in a proper love story as well - beginning in Bridget Jones knockabout style when the man she's invited to join her arrives just as she's suffering an acute case of Delhi belly."—Recommended Read, Reader's Digest (UK)

"Its a fabulous book and such a good read. People should have a look at it, its such a crazy journey and I take my hat off to you." –Bill Padley, Talk Radio Europe

"A hilarious account."–Kat Ormond, BBC Radio Oxford

“No need to read further when planning a 10,000km trip on Indias classically rubbish roads. How about a Toyota Land Cruiser? Which is exactly not what Vanessa Able thought, for reasons known only to herself, she was determined to do this trip in a Tata Nano and she did. Remarkable she is still alive and her account is wittily entitled Never Mind the Bullocks.”–Rhod Sharp, BBC Radio 5 Up All Night

"Vanessa is a gem. Her writing is as effervescent and refreshing as diving naked into a lake of Champagne."–Olly Smith, TV presenter and author

"Vanessa Able is doggedly intrepid, deliciously acerbic, quite keenly inquisitive and quite possibly mental"—Jaideep VG, Time Out India

Vanessa Able wanted a truly independent Indian adventure, but nothing prepared her for the noise, chaos and terror of driving 10,000 km around the subcontinent or for finding the love of her life. Behind the wheel of a yellow Tata Nano (the world's cheapest car), Vanessa steers the reader through a hilarious, high-octane adventure.

Taking any help she can get from loopy spiritual gurus to professional driving instructors, and even a divine insurance policy, she drives her way around an alien road network through India's white-knuckle traffic where vehicle size, full-beam lights and roads that simply disappear seem to trump all common sense. Narrowly escaping death by truck, she learns the real rules of the road, the vehicle pecking order, what to do when the SH11T hits the fan and to appreciate the true kings of the dusty tarmac: the bullocks.

En route, she falls hopelessly in love with a mathematician named Thor who might be, ironically, the worst driver she's ever met. Their romance does not start promisingly - the first rendezvous is interrupted by that universal passion-killer, Delhi belly - but will they survive unexpected sheep-jams, a car full of elephant slime, and the endless cacophony of horns?

Vanessa Able wanted a truly independent Indian adventure, but nothing prepared her for the noise, chaos and terror of driving 10,000 km around the subcontinent or for finding the love of her life.

Behind the wheel of a yellow Tata Nano (the world s cheapest car), Vanessa steers the reader through a hilarious, high-octane adventure. Taking any help she can get from loopy spiritual gurus to professional driving instructors, and even a divine insurance policy she drives her way around an alien road network through India s white-knuckle traffic where vehicle size, full-beam lights and roads that simply disappear seem to trump all common sense. Narrowly escaping death by truck, she learns the real rules of the road, the vehicle pecking order, what to do when the SH11T hits the fan and to appreciate the true kings of the dusty tarmac: the bullocks.

En route, she falls hopelessly in love with a mathematician named Thor who might be, ironically, the worst driver she s ever met. Their romance does not start promisingly the first rendezvous is interrupted by that universal passion-killer, Delhi belly but will they survive unexpected sheep-jams, a car full of elephant slime, and the endless cacophony of horns?