By one of those strange coincidences, Clare Pooley – author of the lovely A Suffolk Lane blog https://asuffolklane.wordpress.com/ sent a reminder today of James Hayward’s superb Romany Dictionary Gypsy Jib on the very day I was planning to give it a blog mention. What I didn’t know, until I read Clare’s comment, was that James hadContinue reading “Gypsy Jib”
Tag Archives: George Borrow
Gypsy Encounters
As a vagabond by nature I’ve often encountered Romani folk on the roads. Normally at this time of the year, we attend the New Fair at Appleby in Westmorland, the most important gathering of Romani folk in Britain. Obviously, with Lockdown, there is no horse fair this year, so I thought I’d publish some RomaniContinue reading “Gypsy Encounters”
No Man’s Land
The concept of No Man’s Land seems strange in relation to country walking. Surely it’s a military term, the terrain between two opposing armies, such as on the Western Front in the Great War? Seventy-five years ago, my father was stationed near Battle Abbey in Sussex, waiting to participate in the Normandy Landings. The lastContinue reading “No Man’s Land”
The Stopping Places
Damian Le Bas, The Stopping Places: A Journey through Gypsy Britain (London: Chatto and Windus 2018). ISBN: 978178471037. Hardback, price £14.99. A review by John Bainbridge. In this fascinating and well-written book, Damian Le Bas overturns many of the public perceptions about modern Gypsies and their way of life, but carefully references Romany heritage andContinue reading “The Stopping Places”
George Borrow’s Scottish Tour
George Borrow, the Victorian writer and traveller, had links with Scotland long before he undertook his great tour of the country in 1858. As a boy he had studied at the High School in Edinburgh during the winter months of 1813-14, arriving in the city with his father’s regiment, the West Norfolk Militia, garrisoning theContinue reading “George Borrow’s Scottish Tour”
Walking the Old Ways 