Maggie Smith-Bendell and her family are Romani Gypsies and, as she grew up, Maggie learned the old crafts and customs of the Gypsies' traditional way of life. In this memoir, Maggie describes a way of life that has more or less vanished in the 21st century.
Maggie Smith-Bendell and her family are Romani Gypsies and, as she grew up, Maggie learned the old crafts and customs of the Gypsies' traditional way of life. In this memoir, Maggie describes a way of life that has more or less vanished in the 21st century.
Born on a Somerset pea-field in 1941, the second of eight children in a Romani family, Maggie Smith-Bendell has lived through the years of greatest change in the travelling community's long history. As a child, Maggie rode and slept in a horse-drawn wagon, picked hops and flowers, and sat beside her father's campfire on ancient verges, poor but free to roam. As the twentieth century progressed, common land was fenced off and the traditional ways disappeared. Eventually Maggie married a house-dweller and tried to settle for bricks and mortar, but she never lost the restless spirit, the deep love of the land and the gift for storytelling that were her Romani inheritance. Maggie's story is one of hardship and prejudice, but also, unforgettably, it recalls the glories of the travelling life, in the absolute safety of a loyal and loving family.
Set in the context of the Gypsies' long and rich history, this autobiography secures the memories of the old ways of Gypsy life and culture at the dawn of the 21st century. Full of the author's vivid recollections, these pages recount her experiences growing up as a Gypsy in rural England. At the heart of her story is her "gorgie mush," Terry, whom she married despite her family's strong disapproval that he wasn't a Gypsy. Together they embraced one another's ways of life, bringing up their children to love the best of both worlds. This tale of one family's unique way of life takes readers on a journey that constantly travels between various places and cultures.
Born on a Somerset pea-field in 1941, the second of eight children in a Romani family, Maggie Smith-Bendell has lived through the years of greatest change in the travelling community's long history. As a child, Maggie rode and slept in a horse-drawn wagon, picked hops and flowers, and sat beside her father's campfire on ancient verges, poor but free to roam. As the twentieth century progressed, common land was fenced off and the traditional ways disappeared. Eventually Maggie married a house-dweller and tried to settle for bricks and mortar, but she never lost the restless spirit, the deep love of the land and the gift for storytelling that were her Romani inheritance. Maggie's story is one of hardship and prejudice, but also, unforgettably, it recalls the glories of the travelling life, in the absolute safety of a loyal and loving family.
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