ROMANY GYPSIES: Bitter Sweet True Romany Stories from my Childhood

ROMANY GYPSIES: Bitter Sweet True Romany Stories from my Childhood

Romany Gypsy True stories, Bittersweet and sometimes funny, from my childhood.1943 to 1959These are true Romany Gypsy stories from my childhood as I remember them, with a little bit of the author’s artistic license to make them more enjoyable. If you are looking for stories that romanticize a Romany Gypsy life on the open road, then this book is probably not for you. However if you are interested in the true life of Romany Gypsy's, you may find this book interesting.Not all Romany Gypsies lived in wagons but more often houses, preferring a permanent base where they couldn’t be told to move on, but still travelling and living the gypsy life in their horse-drawn vardo wagons, carrying on the Romany traditions of flower and rag rug making, duckering (fortune-telling), and hawking (selling) flowers and firewood logs from a horse-drawn cart, as me and mum did, travelling back and forth from the gypsy Camp on Belverdere Marshes the hop picking and fruit farms. Many kept their carts and horses in their backyards as we did. Some had vardos (horse-drawn wagons) and houses, as did my grandad’s sister, Ocean. Family History: Lords, Ladies, and Gypsies going back to over 700 hundred years. We are related to Princess Di and her boys. If family lore is correct, then Princess Di is our fifteenth cousin once-removed (that means fifteen generations back, we shared a grandad).Winston Churchill is also our thirteenth cousin three times removed. The removed bit means they are not of the same generation as us. Diana is actually of my mum’s generation, and Winston is the same generation as my great grandad. Sarah Ferguson and her daughters are also our cousins. We share a great grandad back in the 1400s called Richard Yate.I met HRH Prince of Wales in 1996 in Crimea, Ukraine. At the time, I was not aware that he was family. He never mentioned it either. Sadly none of the family were invited to either Diana or Sarah's wedding. Probably with all our travelling about they lost our address.Review by:Robert Dawson, President of the RTFHS,That’s how realistic and authentic Lenny Harvey’s book is – so spot on, so accurate, so as it was. He takes you right there… I couldn’t put it down Romany Gypsies Bitter Sweet Stories from my Childhood 1943-1959 By Lenny Harvey 15th April 2021 Review by: Robert Dawson, President of the RTFHS, has written a review of my book, Romany Gypsies. Robert, published author of almost 100 Romani / Traveller books, for over sixty years. He was the first winner of the Pride Not Prejudice Traveller Groups Oscar. ( RTFHS, Romany and Traveler Family History Society UK ) ....................... Roberts Dawson's review will be published in the RTFHS later this year. But you can read it Now, Here it is Below. ................................................. For new books pages or reviews, I suggest Romany Gypsies: Bitter Sweet Stories from my Childhood 1943-1959 By Lenny Harvey Self published through Amazon, 2021 and available to order from them price £9.99, postage extra. Pb, 210 pages, profusely illustrated with photos and drawings. I'm sitting by a stick fire, a cup of mot in my hand. I see the smoke curling into the night sky, interspersed with sparks. I hear the crackle of the wood and over it all, the voice of Lenny Harvey recollecting his youth from the 1940s into the 1960s. I find myself agreeing, nodding my head sagely ....... That's how realistic and authentic Lenny Harvey's book is - so spot on, so accurate, so as it was. He takes you right there... I couldn't put it down. And another so - so many allegedly authentic Romani/Traveller books appear and I invariably find myself getting angry at their falsehood and mistakes. Thus Lenny's book is a paradise of how things were. You'll guess from that how much I think of it, my only grumpiness being that he sometimes forgets to use a capital 'G' for his own people. Put that aside, it's a book deserving to be on every bookshelf. For family history searchers it has added advantages. If your sought surnames are from London area and Kent (including Belvedere Marshes), you're sure to be especially hooked. There are Scarrotts, Brinkleys, Harveys, Silvermans, Coopers, Nickalls, Taverners, Smiths Kerridges and Reynoldses. I've probably missed some more. There are even unexpected links to Princess Di and Winston Churchill. But most of all, it's a book which tells it as it was. Honestly, warts and all. Massive congratulations to Lenny and his wife Lynne ....................................