MY BIG FAT GYPSY….
In 2010 Channel 4 Television broadcast the 60-minute documentary My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding which was a huge hit with British and American viewers. Audiences were mesmerised by the over the top frocks with enough fabric to wrap around a sky scraper, and the sight of eager, young brides being chauffeured to church in grandly ornate Cinderella style coaches.
These days it seems that anything with “My Big, Fat, Gypsy…” in the title stands a more than reasonable chance of making it onto the small screen. How ironic therefore that in 2007 author Miriam Wakerly couldn’t even find a publisher for her novels Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served because, according to the people she approached, the public simply wasn’t interested in travelling communities! Wakerly eventually published the books herself and the result is an honest, even handed attempt to explore the barriers that divide gypsies/travellers from settled communities.
Forget the romantic image of gypsies in painted wagons idling away the evenings around camp fires, imagine instead the very real clash between gypsies/travellers looking for a site to live on, the villagers who don’t want them and the local authorities who are legally obliged to provide permanent sites to accommodate them.
It’s a huge theme and one that’s skillfully explored through the central character Kay, who in Gypsies Stop tHere moves to the fictitious village of Appley Green after the death of her husband. Appley Green, a mixture of the very real Surrey villages of Pirbright, Elstead, Tilford and Frimley Green, is a friendly, genteel community which is up in arms against a group of travellers occupying council land. The locals accuse them of anti-social behaviour and want them evicted while an activist campaigner demands restraint and compassion. Caught between two emotionally charged factions Kay tries to be objective although she finds herself drawn to the gypsies after befriending Lena, a vulnerable young traveller woman.
The underlying theme running through this story is that both sides must ultimately learn to live together, yet Wakerly doesn’t suffocate the reader with the message or resort to cheap character stereotyping to reinforce it. It would have been easy to present the gypsies as the helpless victims of bigoted nimbyists, yet they come across as proud, spirited people with a love of family that even the residents of Appley Green can identify with. Kay is both gutsy and pragmatic while her friendship with Dunstan, the generous hearted gardener and all round good guy, has a teasing “will they, won’t they?” quality about it. Dunstan is a strong, impressive character in his own right and it is fitting that Wakerly uses his heart piercing struggle for acceptance and reconciliation as the basis for No Gypsies Served.
The re-emergence of these novels is more than apt given the media’s obsession with gypsies and the ongoing struggle to balance their needs against the rights of local communities. Whether the issue will ever be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction remains a moot point, although the fictitious goings on at Appley Green have an all too authentic ring about them to anyone who may have lived through a similar drama.
Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served don’t have to be read in any particular order as either of them stand as a sequel or prequel. They’ve been ably woven together to tell an engaging story that also raises questions of a much bigger importance: can society ever do enough to atone for the historical wrongs that were perpetrated against gypsies? How will future generations judge our treatment of this unique community? Perhaps a Big, Fat, Gypsy TV extravaganza is one way to find the answers.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
© Archant Community Media Limited used under limited licence
No Gypsies Served is the sequel and prequel to Gypsies Stop tHere but both books standalone. You could read either one first.
