A woman who 'didn't think she had a problem' as she didn't drink every day realised alcohol had taken over her life as she was downing wine by the bottle and planning for her next binge sessions. Lindzi Hargrave says she was drinking more than half the week before she realised something was wrong.

A s the years went on, Lindzi, a teacher in specialist education, realised she was becoming too reliant on alcohol - and the joy was fading. Lindzi said: “I was binge drinking probably four times a week. I loved getting home from work and having a couple of pints, then a bottle of wine or Prosecco. I would drink and write poetry or swing around my pole. I just loved having a good time on my own.

“It was almost like functioning alcoholism,” said the 38-year-old from Leicestershire. “I would not drink on Monday so I could drink on Tuesday. It felt controlled, but the drink controlled me. I started to think alcohol was the be-all and end-all. If I went for a walk, there would be a pub at the end. In any situation, there needed to be a drink. After a while, I realised that wasn’t healthy. I realised that if I didn’t stop, I was going to be the saddo down the pub hanging out with much younger people.”

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Realising alcohol was making her anxious, and in need of a new project, she signed up for the one-year no-beer challenge in January 2023, telling herself it was “just one holiday without booze, just one Christmas Day”.

Eight weeks in, she realised she loved the clarity sobriety brought. “It was the gift that kept on giving. Sobriety made me build new coping mechanisms, which made me more confident. My anxiety went down and I discovered I was thriving.”

Around the same time her relationship of two years was coming to an end and she needed something new to focus on. She decided to buy an old bus and convert it into a place she could live. “As a girl, I loved buses. I even wanted to be a bus driver at one point. I was fascinated with the top deck because when I was little, I was never allowed up there as that was the smoking section. Then in my twenties I started researching whether you could convert a bus into a cafe, which is something I thought about doing.”

In 2023 Lindzi sold her house - which she part owned with her brother - trained as an HGV driver and bought an old police bus for £18,000. She spent the next 18 months converting it with her mum Alison. Inside the black-painted and lavishly decorated double decker, she now has a downstairs library with 1,000 books and a ladder, a log burner, a snug seating area and a working kitchen. Upstairs she has a bedroom, office, bathtub -which she uses with a camping shower - and a composting toilet. The bus is covered with solar panels that power a large leisure battery and a Wi-Fi hub, meaning she can live on board all year round.

Lindzi was overjoyed to move in last winter, but the first few months were unexpectedly tough. She had hoped to park in campsites but found many were not welcoming to a large bus. Since then, she has moved between lay-bys and private land with owners’ permission. It was also very cold.

“If I left a half-drunk cup of tea out overnight, the next morning it would be frozen solid. There was ice on the ceiling when I woke up. It was super tough. I’ve since better insulated the bus and during the colder months, I sleep downstairs near the log burner.”

Living in a bus also comes with constant upkeep. The engine needs regular running so the batteries don’t go flat, and she has to manage all her waste. Paper and card go on the fire, recycling is taken to bins, and general waste has to be disposed of properly.

“I go to the toilets at work where I can. Solids can also be double bagged and put in normal bins, like a nappy. I also try to compost waste wherever possible.”

It was an expensive project, so Lindzi and Alison made the decision to shave their heads for sponsorship. Half the money raised went to the Pain Relief Foundation and the rest towards the conversion. Lindzi hopes to improve literacy rates with her book bus. She travels to festivals in the summer and works with local councils at other times of the year, lending and swapping books for both adults and children.

“I always wanted to be an author and I have so many memories of going to the library with my grandma when I was younger,” she says. “When I decided to get the bus, I thought ‘I’m going to make it a book bus so communities without libraries can benefit’. Everyone should have access to literature.”

2026 is the national year of reading, and Lindzi would love to hear from councils or organisations that would like her to visit - she can be contacted via @‌lindzivibe on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. In the meantime, she is busy working and enjoying the outside world, which in her metal home she now feels closer to then ever before.

“I have views of nature from every window and I am currently befriending some crows that live nearby. Living here, I am in tune with the natural rhythms of the world. The walls are thinner, so I can hear the birds singing all the time. Being surrounded by windows, at night you can see the moon no matter where it is, and all the stars.”

“I love my life here. It’s the first time I’ve lived alone and I love the peace, the calm, and being able to leave my mess everywhere. Who knows what the future holds, but for now, I feel my dreams have come true."