Thirty-something Londoner Nick Leonard spent two months living in a caravan in a friend's back yard in the city of San Luis Obispo on California's Central Coast. His goal was to write a novel but he came back empty-handed, having been irresistibly sidetracked by the temptations of the Californian lifestyle. Expecting a world of Beach Boys lyrics and 90210 brats, Nick was completely unprepared for what he found - a California that belongs to Zombie flash mobs and Poly Dollies, to marauding bears and a train spotting dragon, to drag-wearing Mayhem and Bendy Bike John, to Mona Sleeza and Miss...