What do you think?
Rate this book
The Gypsy Way-- Part One-- Running in Corridors
It all started in 1985, when I was living in my shabby caravan in my own little corner of rural England. I scraped a living back then breeding chickens, doing odd jobs, and I kept my head down—until she came along. All it took was one row with her husband to turn my life upside down and plunge me into a world I had tried to leave behind. All I needed was the truth, but as everyone seemed to be hiding a guilty secret—including me—it took a long time and a hectic race around England, from Appleby Horse Fair to sunny south Devon, to find it. Desperation drove me on as I tried to stay alive and to protect my friends from a murderous syndicate. They had fists and guns; I had nothing but my wits and my charm to solve the mystery. The odds were against me. It was obvious that sooner or later I would have to do things The Gypsy Way. A story peppered with comedy and romance, with more than its fair share of sex, violence, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, this is Gypsy life in rural England in the mid-1980s. And there isn’t a crystal ball or fortune-teller in sight!
304 pages, Paperback
First published October 18, 2013
11 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 6, 2014
I can’t quite work out whether Fullwood really is half Gypsy / half Gorgie or whether he’s just a Plastic Pikey, or even a Settler who understands the Traveller life and is able to write very well about it.
Either way, I don’t think he’s quite found his feet yet. There’s some very good writing in this book but it’s peppered with ridiculous subplots, which is a shame because I suspect that if he stuck to the main plot and then built feasible subplots around that we’d have a much more credible book to read. As it is, it moves along far too slowly.
For the first time ever I’m writing a review after not reading the full book, and I shouldn’t do that, but what really put me off after reaching the 30% mark is the amount of women the protagonist sleeps with. He’s little more than a tramp but he somehow manages to sleep with just about every woman in the village; the Lady of the Manor, the beautiful Spanish barmaid, a visiting Gypsy folk singer, ALL of his clients who he sells chickens to, one of whom even spends the night in the summer house with him, wakes up and – instead of trying to sneak back quietly into her marital bed before he husband realises she spent the night with their ‘guest’ in the summer house - simply cooks matey a great big breakfast! I’d think the husband would have something to say about that, wouldn’t you? (I don’t mean shagging his wife – no one seems to mind that in this book – but I mean eating all his bacon).
At 30% he goes into a café, and at this stage I’m making sarcastic little notes in my Kindle along the lines of, “Bloody hell, he’s drank his whole cup of tea and he hasn’t even shagged the waitress yet!”
All of these women are, of course, beautiful. On the next page he’s off to visit June and guess what? She’s also an old conquest! And at that stage I gave up.
Stick to writing about Gypsies, Frankie. Publish a ‘Confessions of a Gypsy chicken salesman’ in another format, if you like. There’s nothing wrong with a tongue-in-cheek book like that, although it’s all been done before and is a bit dated now. In ‘The Gypsy Way,’ however, it just detracts from what I suspect is a very good storyline. I liked the Gypsy characters and wanted more of them, and I’m sure you could write really well about them. That in itself would be a much better book.
Either way, I don’t think he’s quite found his feet yet. There’s some very good writing in this book but it’s peppered with ridiculous subplots, which is a shame because I suspect that if he stuck to the main plot and then built feasible subplots around that we’d have a much more credible book to read. As it is, it moves along far too slowly.
For the first time ever I’m writing a review after not reading the full book, and I shouldn’t do that, but what really put me off after reaching the 30% mark is the amount of women the protagonist sleeps with. He’s little more than a tramp but he somehow manages to sleep with just about every woman in the village; the Lady of the Manor, the beautiful Spanish barmaid, a visiting Gypsy folk singer, ALL of his clients who he sells chickens to, one of whom even spends the night in the summer house with him, wakes up and – instead of trying to sneak back quietly into her marital bed before he husband realises she spent the night with their ‘guest’ in the summer house - simply cooks matey a great big breakfast! I’d think the husband would have something to say about that, wouldn’t you? (I don’t mean shagging his wife – no one seems to mind that in this book – but I mean eating all his bacon).
At 30% he goes into a café, and at this stage I’m making sarcastic little notes in my Kindle along the lines of, “Bloody hell, he’s drank his whole cup of tea and he hasn’t even shagged the waitress yet!”
All of these women are, of course, beautiful. On the next page he’s off to visit June and guess what? She’s also an old conquest! And at that stage I gave up.
Stick to writing about Gypsies, Frankie. Publish a ‘Confessions of a Gypsy chicken salesman’ in another format, if you like. There’s nothing wrong with a tongue-in-cheek book like that, although it’s all been done before and is a bit dated now. In ‘The Gypsy Way,’ however, it just detracts from what I suspect is a very good storyline. I liked the Gypsy characters and wanted more of them, and I’m sure you could write really well about them. That in itself would be a much better book.
February 17, 2014
Janis Joplin's “Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose” are words completely descriptive of Frankie Fulwood's Frankie in “The Gypsy Way.” As a three-quarter Romani descended from Moldovan slaves, I was raised to keep our heritage secret and make no waves. I still carry a backpack stuffed with underwear, deodorant and a washcloth in case we have to flee. So although Frankie's experiences are so different from mine, the one thing anyone with a drop of Gypsy blood contains is a love of freedom. This book personifies it with a living off the grid feistiness!
What a vibrant cast of characters: Frankie, a lovable rogue with a harem of women (although it is debatable who has ensnared whom); strong, fiery Jenny, his childhood sweetheart; deceptively clever Liza; Jenny's singing partner Lydia; well, the list goes on...Maybe he's not the perfect knight in shining armor but he rescues the damsels even if he has to drag them--wrapped in a sleeping bag, bloody and unconscious--over rocks and branches.
This is an edge-of-the seat page-turner containing a sophisticated mystery that is disguised in the misleadingly bumbling antics of Frankie. Don't be fooled by the foolishness, it excels in plot, dialogue, and characterization.
What a vibrant cast of characters: Frankie, a lovable rogue with a harem of women (although it is debatable who has ensnared whom); strong, fiery Jenny, his childhood sweetheart; deceptively clever Liza; Jenny's singing partner Lydia; well, the list goes on...Maybe he's not the perfect knight in shining armor but he rescues the damsels even if he has to drag them--wrapped in a sleeping bag, bloody and unconscious--over rocks and branches.
This is an edge-of-the seat page-turner containing a sophisticated mystery that is disguised in the misleadingly bumbling antics of Frankie. Don't be fooled by the foolishness, it excels in plot, dialogue, and characterization.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews