Alan Bennett is the author of "Writing Home", "The Madness of George III", "Talking Heads", "The Clothes They Stood Up In" and much else besides. Miss Shepherd lived in a Robin Reliant opposite Bennett's house in Camden Town. After a series of attacks on her van, he suggested she move, with her van, to his front drive. Initially reluctant, she agreed - and Bennett landed himself a tenancy that went on for fifteen years. "The Lady in the Van" is probably Alan Bennett's best-known work of non-fiction, and follows his other little blockbuster "The Clothes They Stood Up In".