How to provide a proxied connection for a dumb WiFi only device?

[Chris Green]

I need to provide 'proxied' WiFi when I'm on my boat in France so
that, among other things, I can log on to my doctor's web site to
order repeat prescriptions and to allow my Kobo Forma (reader, like a   
Kindle) to access my public library.  Both of these fail when tried
directly from abroad.

So I thought a VPN might be the way to do this but every time I look    
into doing it I seem to hit a problem.

The Kobo Forma has little flexibility, all it can do is connect to      
WiFi, you can't tell it any more than the SSID and password.  Thus I    
need to somehow provide a 'proxied' WiFi connection that makes the
Kobo look as if it's connecting from a UK IP address.

The router on the boat is a TP-Link Archer MR200 and it does have VPN   
ability, however on looking into it it seems to be a VPN server which  
is little use.  I want it to be a VPN client and connect to a VPN
server in the UK (don't I?).

I can easily enough set up a router here at home in the UK that runs a  
VPN server, but again I fail to see how that helps as I can't get the   
Kobo to log in to the VPN.

Everyone tells me that VPNs are the solution to everything but I still  
fail to see how they can help me at all! :-)

Can anyone here help me to a solution of my problem?  I'm fairly
techie, I'm familiar with proxying using ssh and reverse tunnels and    
all sorts of things like that but this still has me stumped.

-- 
Chris Green