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  • Romany Gypsies

  • Bittersweet True Romany Stories from my Childhood
  • By: Lenny Harvey
  • Narrated by: Jay Forrester
  • Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (26 ratings)

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Romany Gypsies

By: Lenny Harvey
Narrated by: Jay Forrester
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Summary

These are bittersweet and sometimes funny true Romany Gypsy stories from my childhood, from 1943 to 1959. These 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 audiobook is probably not for you. However, if you are interested in the true life of Romany Gypsy's, you may find this audiobook interesting.

Not all Romany Gypsies lived in wagons. They more often lived in 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 years. We are related to Princess Di and her boys. If family lore is correct, then Princess Di is our 15th cousin once-removed (that means 15 generations back, we shared a grandad).

Winston Churchill is also our 13th 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.

©2021 Leslie Silverman (P)2022 Leslie Silverman
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Critic reviews

"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." (Robert Dawson, president of the RTFHS)

What listeners say about Romany Gypsies

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Eye opening

You don’t really always think how childhood and parenting can be impacted back socio-economics factors.

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amazing

amazing Book, thank you for sharing your story, it meant the world to me seeing how everything made you stronger thru life

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AMAZING!!!!!!!

Grate. Thank you for your honesty and outlook. It’s powerful what you have done here.

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This author does the best

Another enjoyable outing . I really enjoy this narrator too. The story and style fits well . Fantastic story

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narrator's makes this

i live good narrator's that do great voices it really makes the book exciting and not boring.

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A pleasure to hear

Lovely to have Lenny Harvey reading a few of his romany adventures. One of my favorite authors!

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Stop worrying too much

This was one of the most useful audio books I have ever heard. It is rich with ideas that are easy to implement.

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Compelling - a painful ride from start to finish

The author creates a painful narrative of a life marked mostly by a violent father and culture. Some may object to aspects of this story that seem to repeat negative stereotypes of gypsy culture. I'm not Romani and can't speak to that but aspects of his experiences with an abusive uncle ring true from my own experiences and the author seems to speak with authenticity of his own experiences. The narrative moves very quickly and its one of those books you finish in one go. Tough to listen to such painful experiences, but the narration is compelling and very well done.

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Great audiobook

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. I listened to it during the 2 weeks and I did the practices as recommended.

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Recommended

Excellent tale of a young slave who defies the odds and wins the hearts of all along the way. I would thoroughly recommend this book.

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