{"id":4023,"date":"2008-08-10T12:06:57","date_gmt":"2008-08-10T11:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/wp\/?p=4023"},"modified":"2021-11-15T13:42:29","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T13:42:29","slug":"my-mercedes-is-not-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/my-mercedes-is-not-for-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"My Mercedes is Not for Sale by Jeroen van Bergeijk &#8211; review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"text-element body\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-4-3 image-review alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/img\/Mercedes.jpg\" alt=\"My Mercedes is not for sale\" width=\"263\" height=\"421\" \/> You know, dear reader, that I spend lots of time looking for books that might inspire, amuse or educate you. My Mercedes is Not for Sale by Jeroen van Bergeijk is one of those books that I hope will do all of the above but will probably also have the dubious additions of filling you with fear, irritation and a dose of shock.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s make one thing clear. I am not saying that Jeroen\u2019s book is irritating, but his travels present him with people who I at least would love to smack. It\u2019s an edgy adventure so it was on the cards that he would encounter the seedy sorts&#8230; and he did, at almost every turn.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s compelling reading that will keep you turning the pages. The plan is to buy an old Mercedes in Amsterdam and resell it in a far-off African state. To this end our hero finds a 1988 Mercedes 190 D (this will mean something to some of you) with 220,000 km on the clock (probably one lady owner who only used it to go to church?). His trip takes him from the relative safety of Holland through Morocco and across the Sahara.<\/p>\n<p>If you consider travelling to the less civilised African countries then I suggest you arm yourself with this book. You can start to read it on the flight over and finish it on the next flight back! Second-hand cars are big business in Africa and there is indeed money to be made but you will have to bear in mind that you\u2019ll be keeping company with guys that would cut your throat for thrupence. It\u2019s a game for the strong and savvy. If Jeroen had been either of those he would have had a less \u201cexciting\u201d trip.<\/p>\n<p>This is a rollicking read and a real Boys\u2019 Own adventure of danger, privation and sandstorms that scour the paint off your car quicker than you can say illegal drugs&#8230; Oh, I forgot to mention drug smuggling!<\/p>\n<p>My Mercedes is Not for Sale<br \/>\nAuthor: Jeroen van Bergeijk<br \/>\nPublished by: Nicholas Brealey<br \/>\nPrice: \u00a39.99<br \/>\nISBN 978-1-85788-515-6<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Cookbook review by Chrissie Walker \u00a9 2018<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know, dear reader, that I spend lots of time looking for books that might inspire, amuse or educate you. My Mercedes is Not for Sale by Jeroen van Bergeijk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3485],"tags":[1498,145,1497,416],"class_list":["post-4023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-culture-and-art","tag-jeroen-van-bergeijk","tag-literature","tag-my-mercedes-is-not-for-sale","tag-travelogue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4023"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9482,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023\/revisions\/9482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}