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The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain
Damian Le Bas grew up surrounded by Gypsy history. His great-grandmother would tell him stories of her childhood in the ancient Romani language; the places her family stopped and worked, the ways they lived, the superstitions and lores of their people. But his own experience of life on the road was limited to Ford Transit journeys from West Sussex to Hampshire to sell flowers.
In a bid to better understand his Gypsy heritage, the history of the Britain's Romanies and the rhythms of their life today, Damian sets out on a journey to discover the atchin tans, or stopping places – the old encampment sites known only to Travellers/ Damian lives on the road, somewhere between the romanticised Gypsies of old, and their much-maligned descendants of today.
313 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 7, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews
September 6, 2019
I must confess that my knowledge of Gypsies/Romanies/Travellers was limited. Yes, they tell fortunes, they try to sell “lucky heather” and they sometimes fill laybys with large caravans, leaving behind a lot of rubbish.
As the synopsis says, Damian Le Bas has a pedigree as a true Romany despite his education at a private school and Oxford University. Who better to open up their world to us?
The Stopping Places takes the form of a road trip around the UK and France by Le Bas to find those parking areas special to Gypsies for a variety of reasons. Sometimes linked with work opportunities, others are traditional meeting places. During the trip he recalls the history of the Romany people from their origins in Hindustan and their migrations across Europe. I particularly enjoyed the information about the Romani language and I was surprised how many of their words were known to me.
It was not just the language that was familiar to me, some of the Sussex country ways also featured in my upbringing including his mother’s dish, “rasher pudding” which we called bacon roly-poly. Le Bas, with his journalistic experience writes in a clear informative style. Despite the factual nature of the material, I never found it dull.
As I suspected, life on the road is not always fun. The Stopping Places describes many hardships such as cold and damp, the uncertainty of income and the ever increasing challenges to find
somewhere welcome to stay. There is also the constant suspicion and hostility from the non-traveller communities. Sleeping in a van parked in a remote spot can be rather scary. The book
also has a running theme of sadness for a way of life that will never return.
I found The Stopping Places informative and enjoyable, worthy of four stars. If you enjoy this book can I suggest All Change!: Romani Studies Through Romani Eyes, Le Bas’s collection of essays by Romani writers. And in case you too have seen the after effects of Traveller encampments, Damian Le Bas will assure you that true Romany people will leave nothing behind!
As the synopsis says, Damian Le Bas has a pedigree as a true Romany despite his education at a private school and Oxford University. Who better to open up their world to us?
The Stopping Places takes the form of a road trip around the UK and France by Le Bas to find those parking areas special to Gypsies for a variety of reasons. Sometimes linked with work opportunities, others are traditional meeting places. During the trip he recalls the history of the Romany people from their origins in Hindustan and their migrations across Europe. I particularly enjoyed the information about the Romani language and I was surprised how many of their words were known to me.
It was not just the language that was familiar to me, some of the Sussex country ways also featured in my upbringing including his mother’s dish, “rasher pudding” which we called bacon roly-poly. Le Bas, with his journalistic experience writes in a clear informative style. Despite the factual nature of the material, I never found it dull.
As I suspected, life on the road is not always fun. The Stopping Places describes many hardships such as cold and damp, the uncertainty of income and the ever increasing challenges to find
somewhere welcome to stay. There is also the constant suspicion and hostility from the non-traveller communities. Sleeping in a van parked in a remote spot can be rather scary. The book
also has a running theme of sadness for a way of life that will never return.
I found The Stopping Places informative and enjoyable, worthy of four stars. If you enjoy this book can I suggest All Change!: Romani Studies Through Romani Eyes, Le Bas’s collection of essays by Romani writers. And in case you too have seen the after effects of Traveller encampments, Damian Le Bas will assure you that true Romany people will leave nothing behind!
Read
February 20, 2022An interesting memoir/travelogue/history from an English Gypsy (own voices, own terminology) talking about Traveller life in the UK and Europe, how G/R/T people are treated (extraordinarily badly), life on the road, family history, the language (fascinating how many Rom words are in UK English), Gypsy culture and how it differs between different groups across Europe, and much more. Highly engaging, well written, and a necessary and enlightening look at an exclusive as well as excluded group of people.
June 18, 2019
Damian Le Bas grew up around the Hampshire-Sussex border; he name-checks Petersfield on the first page, which is where my grandparents live and where I spent my summers from the age of seven onwards. Le Bas’s childhood, however, was spent selling flowers at the market there, and bombing around the countryside with various uncles and cousins, working on construction projects. He comes from a family of Travellers, or Gypsies, or Romanies—he uses the word Gypsy of himself and of people he knows, although my understanding is that for gorjies (outsiders), using either “Traveller” or “Romany” is less likely to give offense. He doesn’t, however, look particularly like a Traveller; he is light-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed. His education also marks him out: he won a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital as a schoolboy, and went on to study theology at Oxford. Like many people whose life has taken them to places their early childhood never hinted at, Le Bas has anxieties about his identity, about what he can call himself and how to reconcile his heritage with the endless comments of “you don’t look like a Gypsy”. To that end, he decides to spend some time driving around Britain in search of atchin tans or stopping places: spots that traditional Traveller families knew as good sites to camp or to halt at, temporarily, on the road.
Despite Le Bas’s reminiscences of his childhood, the resulting book is really much more a travelogue than a memoir. His wife, Candis, for instance, appears regularly—she joins him for some of the later legs of his journey—but we don’t really get a sense of her as a personality, nor of how they met and entered into a relationship with each other. They seem not to speak much while they’re on the road, and he only rarely describes any particular feelings towards her; she’s just sort of there. Perhaps this is to free up space to talk about the atchin tans, which are interesting, although for at least the book’s first half there is a strong suggestion that the whole thing might end in failure: Le Bas finds himself unmoved by many of the stopping places he first visits, and there are several dark nights of the soul where he ponders why he’s making these trips in the first place. The reader could be forgiven for wondering the same thing.
Fortunately, after a trip to France to join in the Continental Gypsy pilgrimage to the shrine of St Sara-la-Kali, emotional engagement seems to kick in. Le Bas’s descriptions of Appleby horse fair, past and present, constitute some of the best and most evocative passages in the book. He’s also skilled at evoking the world of Traveller masculinity and honour, the rigid codes that govern a society that only appears free-wheeling to outsiders. But the most effective elements of The Stopping Places are Le Bas’s conversations with his indomitable grandmother, who grew up one of ten children in a world where Travellers still used wagons (they’re mostly in caravans or bungalows now): her retelling of her memories functions as a kind of oral history project. There’s too much in the way of regurgitated itinerary, and we don’t get to participate in Le Bas’s emotions and thought processes nearly as much as we ought; instead we’re mostly relegated to passive recipients of what he informs us he is thinking and feeling. But the fact that I can think of no other currently published mainstream book about Traveller life and culture is indicative of The Stopping Places' significance. It’s certainly a tantalising beginning.
If you like what I write, why not buy me a coffee?
Despite Le Bas’s reminiscences of his childhood, the resulting book is really much more a travelogue than a memoir. His wife, Candis, for instance, appears regularly—she joins him for some of the later legs of his journey—but we don’t really get a sense of her as a personality, nor of how they met and entered into a relationship with each other. They seem not to speak much while they’re on the road, and he only rarely describes any particular feelings towards her; she’s just sort of there. Perhaps this is to free up space to talk about the atchin tans, which are interesting, although for at least the book’s first half there is a strong suggestion that the whole thing might end in failure: Le Bas finds himself unmoved by many of the stopping places he first visits, and there are several dark nights of the soul where he ponders why he’s making these trips in the first place. The reader could be forgiven for wondering the same thing.
Fortunately, after a trip to France to join in the Continental Gypsy pilgrimage to the shrine of St Sara-la-Kali, emotional engagement seems to kick in. Le Bas’s descriptions of Appleby horse fair, past and present, constitute some of the best and most evocative passages in the book. He’s also skilled at evoking the world of Traveller masculinity and honour, the rigid codes that govern a society that only appears free-wheeling to outsiders. But the most effective elements of The Stopping Places are Le Bas’s conversations with his indomitable grandmother, who grew up one of ten children in a world where Travellers still used wagons (they’re mostly in caravans or bungalows now): her retelling of her memories functions as a kind of oral history project. There’s too much in the way of regurgitated itinerary, and we don’t get to participate in Le Bas’s emotions and thought processes nearly as much as we ought; instead we’re mostly relegated to passive recipients of what he informs us he is thinking and feeling. But the fact that I can think of no other currently published mainstream book about Traveller life and culture is indicative of The Stopping Places' significance. It’s certainly a tantalising beginning.
If you like what I write, why not buy me a coffee?
June 9, 2018
I know little about Romany / gypsy culture and most that I hear is not good, so to come across this delightful book which explains so much and brings a real feeling of life and heritage to the subject was an amazing find. Written with a lovely personal touch and without resentment to those who make a gypsy's life difficult. I am very glad I stopped long enough to read this.
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April 7, 2019(This is an ownvoices work, before someone complains about the title *again*.) It is a literary nonfiction / memoirish book where the author revisits places his family used to use as stopping places when on the road, and other stopping places for Roma/Travellers. I have read an amount of Hungarian Romani literature, but I find it harder to find Romani authors in other languages. I was glad to read this book, and the attempt to reconstruct family lore and find ways to relate it to the present was really relatable to me; I might write more about it later too.
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Source of the book: Lawrence Public Library
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Source of the book: Lawrence Public Library
June 5, 2024
A brilliant read into the lives of Gypsy Travellers in Britain.
Le Bas was born into a large Gypsy Traveller family from the south coast of England. A brilliant writer - his prose effortless, lively, and conscientious, this book documents his year-long journey across the UK to map historical sites of importance to Romany, Irish and other Travelling people.
His own background is fascinating as he reveals his family history while evidencing the importance of maintaining Romany values - such as the old tongue - which, despite being a part of British history for around 500 years, receives little to no recognition today.
It also serves as the ultimate book in putting to bed some of the lazy, uneducated and ignorant stereotypes that society has imposed for centuries.
Didn't want this to end. 100% recommend.
Le Bas was born into a large Gypsy Traveller family from the south coast of England. A brilliant writer - his prose effortless, lively, and conscientious, this book documents his year-long journey across the UK to map historical sites of importance to Romany, Irish and other Travelling people.
His own background is fascinating as he reveals his family history while evidencing the importance of maintaining Romany values - such as the old tongue - which, despite being a part of British history for around 500 years, receives little to no recognition today.
It also serves as the ultimate book in putting to bed some of the lazy, uneducated and ignorant stereotypes that society has imposed for centuries.
Didn't want this to end. 100% recommend.
May 26, 2019
Damien Le Bas didn’t have what most would consider a conventional upbringing. He is a gypsy and his community have always had a strained relationship with others in the UK. He spent time with various family members travelling around the countryside, selling flowers and carrying out all sorts of odd jobs. He didn’t follow the usual path for gypsies either, winning a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital before going onto study at Oxford.
This is about his travels back through his memories to the ‘stopping places’ or in their language, atchin tans, that he remembers from childhood and his attempt to find them once again. He does up his van, installing a bed and collecting a few necessary items that he can use to cook with as he hits the road with the intention of stopping over, getting back to his roots and indulging in a little nostalgia. His journeys with take him and Candis all around the country, up to the Appleby Horse Fair and even as far as the South of France to the shrine of St Sara-la-Kali.
Not only is it a journey to his past haunts, but it is a glimpse into the world of British Gypsies, their culture and language as well as a nostalgic look back at his family’s past. He has a unique position with a foot in each community to explain the differences and the common traits and even though he is a member of this culture, he doesn’t look like a member because of his fair complexion. This occasionally leads to confrontation. I didn’t feel that we got to know much about the man and only had a taste of what the culture is like. He is a lyrical writer too, which makes this an enjoyable read. 3.5 stars
This is about his travels back through his memories to the ‘stopping places’ or in their language, atchin tans, that he remembers from childhood and his attempt to find them once again. He does up his van, installing a bed and collecting a few necessary items that he can use to cook with as he hits the road with the intention of stopping over, getting back to his roots and indulging in a little nostalgia. His journeys with take him and Candis all around the country, up to the Appleby Horse Fair and even as far as the South of France to the shrine of St Sara-la-Kali.
Not only is it a journey to his past haunts, but it is a glimpse into the world of British Gypsies, their culture and language as well as a nostalgic look back at his family’s past. He has a unique position with a foot in each community to explain the differences and the common traits and even though he is a member of this culture, he doesn’t look like a member because of his fair complexion. This occasionally leads to confrontation. I didn’t feel that we got to know much about the man and only had a taste of what the culture is like. He is a lyrical writer too, which makes this an enjoyable read. 3.5 stars
June 11, 2018
It is hard to explain just how much I loved this book; or quite why. But I will probably go right back to the beginning in a day or two and read it again.
Damian Le Bas, brought up in the midst of his extended Romany family but with a public school education (thanks to a scholarship) and a degree from Oxford, clearly has to sometimes defend himself against suggestions, from both outside and inside the Roma community, that he has become what my mother would describe as 'neither nowt nor summat'.
Sometimes he seems unsure himself despite, as he himself says in an interview I have just read, knowing that you cannot educate away someone's ethnicity.
The Stopping Places looks realistically at what it means to be a Traveller in Britain today when many are no longer nomadic, and the relationship between Roma from across Europe, as well as telling the reader a lot about, particularly, his maternal family.
And he does this whilst on a journey to find the fixed places of each Romany family's life on the road, for there were definitely fixed places; the atchin tans, ‘the stopping places’. It is also, in some ways, a journey to find out more about himself.
None of that really describes the book properly, somehow - the readability, the need to stay up late to read another chapter, is in the way all this is woven together.
If you try to look for Damian Le Bas online you might, at first, be shocked to see mainly obituaries - these are for his father, also Damian Le Bas, who was a well know Traveller artist.
Damian Le Bas, brought up in the midst of his extended Romany family but with a public school education (thanks to a scholarship) and a degree from Oxford, clearly has to sometimes defend himself against suggestions, from both outside and inside the Roma community, that he has become what my mother would describe as 'neither nowt nor summat'.
Sometimes he seems unsure himself despite, as he himself says in an interview I have just read, knowing that you cannot educate away someone's ethnicity.
The Stopping Places looks realistically at what it means to be a Traveller in Britain today when many are no longer nomadic, and the relationship between Roma from across Europe, as well as telling the reader a lot about, particularly, his maternal family.
And he does this whilst on a journey to find the fixed places of each Romany family's life on the road, for there were definitely fixed places; the atchin tans, ‘the stopping places’. It is also, in some ways, a journey to find out more about himself.
None of that really describes the book properly, somehow - the readability, the need to stay up late to read another chapter, is in the way all this is woven together.
If you try to look for Damian Le Bas online you might, at first, be shocked to see mainly obituaries - these are for his father, also Damian Le Bas, who was a well know Traveller artist.
June 26, 2018
This book doesn't do any of the things you think it is going to do. It neither romanticises nor condemns the traveller way of life. Instead in reaching out to his cultural traditions , Damien Le Bas searches for his own identity in a world that has changed completely for him and many of his generation; whatever their ethnicity, displaced from their roots and living in the diverse 21st century, cosmopolitan world.
I lived next to a "stopping place". It had ceased to hold wagons or trucks over the winter as the gypsy family had long since bought the field and after the first world war built a terrace of 3 houses to live permanently there. However next door, dear "Em" as we knew her was like a Granny to me and my sister. I loved the colour in her home, the preserved eggs in a pail in the (unused for bathing) bath and the ferrets in the shed. Her way of life was not just because she was a traveller but because she had grown up in the countryside and her routines often reflected those of other country-dwellers from a pre-war age. Gypsies do not have a monopoly on their knowledge and love of the great outdoors and not everything mentioned in the book is the reserve of the travellers.
So I loved this book but feel there is so much more to tell. I would love to know more of Damien Le Bas and his philosophy on life, he kept so much hidden from us in true romany fashion ("Be a millionaire but never look like one" was the advice one horse dealer passed onto his son - secrecy being a mantra amongst the travelling peoples!) I would also love another book or a novel to tell "Nan's" life story, again we have such tempting glimpses but not enough.
Hopefully the second book won't be too far in the future!
I lived next to a "stopping place". It had ceased to hold wagons or trucks over the winter as the gypsy family had long since bought the field and after the first world war built a terrace of 3 houses to live permanently there. However next door, dear "Em" as we knew her was like a Granny to me and my sister. I loved the colour in her home, the preserved eggs in a pail in the (unused for bathing) bath and the ferrets in the shed. Her way of life was not just because she was a traveller but because she had grown up in the countryside and her routines often reflected those of other country-dwellers from a pre-war age. Gypsies do not have a monopoly on their knowledge and love of the great outdoors and not everything mentioned in the book is the reserve of the travellers.
So I loved this book but feel there is so much more to tell. I would love to know more of Damien Le Bas and his philosophy on life, he kept so much hidden from us in true romany fashion ("Be a millionaire but never look like one" was the advice one horse dealer passed onto his son - secrecy being a mantra amongst the travelling peoples!) I would also love another book or a novel to tell "Nan's" life story, again we have such tempting glimpses but not enough.
Hopefully the second book won't be too far in the future!
April 22, 2019
A charming enough meandering travelogue which is fine as far as it goes.
All is rather quaint and as the books becomes a plod of haphazard road trips around Britain taken over a period of time. All is a little twee and refuses steadfastly to offer much in the way of insight. The author appears happy to gloss over deeper potentially darker issue. I would have been fascinated to hear about his take on how Gypsies have been stereotyped in popular British culture for instance.
All is rather quaint and as the books becomes a plod of haphazard road trips around Britain taken over a period of time. All is a little twee and refuses steadfastly to offer much in the way of insight. The author appears happy to gloss over deeper potentially darker issue. I would have been fascinated to hear about his take on how Gypsies have been stereotyped in popular British culture for instance.
December 28, 2018
A fascinating, slightly removed, account of gypsy life from a competent author who has a desire to get to the bottom of some of the mysteries of his tribe. He admits he's not "kaulo ratti" — although he can trace his Gypsy family history back at least 6 generations, he has learnt the gypsy ways, especially the Romanipen, but he chose to leave the community for an education. This book is a "road trip" around the hidden atchin tans — the romani stopping places — of Britain... and also an insight into a culture that has been misunderstood for centuries. There's a useful glossary of Romani words at the end: Romnichal words such as minge, chav, diddle, div, kushti etc. have entered the colorful slang lexicon of British playgrounds and workplaces (often via TV shows like Only Fools and Horses) but the funfairs, scrap metal dealing, horse dealing, tree surgery, tarmacking, asphalting and traveling way of life goes on... as does the persecution. Meanwhile, the successful TV show Big Fat Gypsy Weddings concentrates on Irish travelers and their traditions but a true Romani Gypsy is almost never shown (although "true" gypsies are sometimes alluded.) The Stopping Places is the real thing about the real thing: warts and all. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand a magical culture who have been misrepresented, by almost everyone, for so long.
July 31, 2024
I didn't know what to expect from this when I went into it, but it ended up being a solid read and I really enjoyed it. A little discussed subject, Travellers are to be found almost everywhere in Britain, and have been for centuries. And yet, their history and culture remains a mystery to many.
Le Bas offers a real insight into modern Traveller life, from a unique perspective. While both genetically Roma and raised in this culture, he often feels at odds with his identity, and questions himself as to whether he is really a gypsy, alongside questions from others in the community. The resulting narrative is an engaging read, as his journey around Britain becomes more than just research for a book, but almost a quest to come to terms with his identity.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of Traveller culture, this book is not particularly dense with historical narrative. Written histories are very rare, so all there is to go off is the oral tradition (oft generations-old). This is more than made up for with personal anecdotes, and where possible academic research is woven in where relevant - on subjects such as migration, language and genetics.
Overall, a good introduction to the subject, and I hope I come across more books on the subject to further educate myself.
Le Bas offers a real insight into modern Traveller life, from a unique perspective. While both genetically Roma and raised in this culture, he often feels at odds with his identity, and questions himself as to whether he is really a gypsy, alongside questions from others in the community. The resulting narrative is an engaging read, as his journey around Britain becomes more than just research for a book, but almost a quest to come to terms with his identity.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of Traveller culture, this book is not particularly dense with historical narrative. Written histories are very rare, so all there is to go off is the oral tradition (oft generations-old). This is more than made up for with personal anecdotes, and where possible academic research is woven in where relevant - on subjects such as migration, language and genetics.
Overall, a good introduction to the subject, and I hope I come across more books on the subject to further educate myself.
July 31, 2018
So torn about this book. On the one hand, it's a window into a world that almost no books I know cover, a recollection of the author's unusual upbringing, and a reconciliation on what it means to be an outsider.
On the other, the author is working out some issues in a haphazard way that makes me think this book should be a diary rather than meant for external consumption - there is no start and end - even a personal story should have a narrative. The presence of the author's wife was strange- she floats in and out and never says a single word. I think this book needs much tighter editing, but I also think it offers a viewpoint you don't often see, and so I still recommend.
On the other, the author is working out some issues in a haphazard way that makes me think this book should be a diary rather than meant for external consumption - there is no start and end - even a personal story should have a narrative. The presence of the author's wife was strange- she floats in and out and never says a single word. I think this book needs much tighter editing, but I also think it offers a viewpoint you don't often see, and so I still recommend.
March 30, 2019
Came across the book when I heard the author in a panel with Arundhati Roy. Seemed in line with some of the topics I’ve been interested in lately: sense of place, spatial relationships, cultural landscapes, a little bit of linguistic history, and oral histories. It’s not bad, but definitely very self-reflective and doesn’t really get into other people’s heads as well as the author’s. If it sounds mildly intriguing for whatever reason, it’s worth reading.
February 16, 2025
Equal parts travel memoir and identity/history memoir, this is a genuinely interesting read and has a lot of the precise information I've always wondered about. It threads the long history of Travellers in Britain together with more specific family history, and also touches on aspects like culture, identity, belonging, how things have changed. Alongside all of this is some really great travel writing, with brilliant scene-setting and emotion. The writing occasionally strays into the slightly more purple of prose for me, but it's just a line here and there and it's balanced by some absolutely wonderful and creative uses of language.
I think my only other major gripe was that several times, Le Bas sets out to go somewhere or do something and then just doesn't. It's not even for any kind of compelling reason; he just decides he can't be bothered, essentially. And I wonder why he includes it, because the actual process of getting there isn't that significant either: there's some good travel writing, but there's no deeper reason to include it. If his decision to not do something had some kind of emotional reflection or reasoning, it might not be so jarring, but very often it seemed like he just didn't want to for no reason other than laziness or, occasionally, self-consciousness. I guess the latter says something, but it would have been good to slow down and examine that a bit more rather than say "I've just spent five pages talking about this place but I'm not going to go there anymore. Anyway."
As usual in my reviews, some personal reflection. I'm one of the many people in the country wth Romany ancestry. I'm not entirely sure when we settled, or how far back it's been since we travelled regularly. My family was not great at communicating history and my mother was very self-conscious about this heritage. I suspect it hasn't been as long as I've been led to believe. When I was younger, my mother talked openly about our Romany blood; she brought me to visit relatives living in caravans and house boats. (I still remember someone -- perhaps one of my mother's cousins -- laughing when I asked what it was like to live like that and telling me "It's great! If you don't like your neighbours, you can just leave.") She told me some less pleasant stories about the abuse she got as a child, some of which I also received: our friends being allowed into shops but not us; friends' parents making us wait outside while everyone else went in. My mother and I have darker skin and thick black hair -- it always seemed pretty obvious what the issue was.
Then my father got a promotion. He'd worked hard for it and it introduced my parents to new social circles. My mother began obsessively straightening her wild hair and stopped talking about being a Traveller. When I mentioned it, she shut me down and told me first that she'd never claimed such a thing, and then that we may have been Travellers somewhere down the line. I stopped seeing those certain relatives. My mother started worrying about me getting too tanned during the long summers. Eventually those old stories stopped coming up and I stopped mentioning it, but I always remembered. I was always curious. And while I can't claim to be a proper Traveller, there's a lot in Le Bas's struggles with identity that I recognise. I even had a similar journey, spending a summer living in my car and going where the road took me, cooking at the roadside and making lay-bys and car parks my home. It was mostly a youthful adventure, something I'd always wanted to do, but I couldn't ignore the fact that it felt right; I couldn't stop thinking about all those stories from when I was younger, and the people that had come before me.
This book helped answer some of those questions. It filled in gaps of history and culture, and it resonated on several levels. It's also straightforwardly interesting, and a very evocative piece of travel writing. It makes me want to hit the road again.
I think my only other major gripe was that several times, Le Bas sets out to go somewhere or do something and then just doesn't. It's not even for any kind of compelling reason; he just decides he can't be bothered, essentially. And I wonder why he includes it, because the actual process of getting there isn't that significant either: there's some good travel writing, but there's no deeper reason to include it. If his decision to not do something had some kind of emotional reflection or reasoning, it might not be so jarring, but very often it seemed like he just didn't want to for no reason other than laziness or, occasionally, self-consciousness. I guess the latter says something, but it would have been good to slow down and examine that a bit more rather than say "I've just spent five pages talking about this place but I'm not going to go there anymore. Anyway."
As usual in my reviews, some personal reflection. I'm one of the many people in the country wth Romany ancestry. I'm not entirely sure when we settled, or how far back it's been since we travelled regularly. My family was not great at communicating history and my mother was very self-conscious about this heritage. I suspect it hasn't been as long as I've been led to believe. When I was younger, my mother talked openly about our Romany blood; she brought me to visit relatives living in caravans and house boats. (I still remember someone -- perhaps one of my mother's cousins -- laughing when I asked what it was like to live like that and telling me "It's great! If you don't like your neighbours, you can just leave.") She told me some less pleasant stories about the abuse she got as a child, some of which I also received: our friends being allowed into shops but not us; friends' parents making us wait outside while everyone else went in. My mother and I have darker skin and thick black hair -- it always seemed pretty obvious what the issue was.
Then my father got a promotion. He'd worked hard for it and it introduced my parents to new social circles. My mother began obsessively straightening her wild hair and stopped talking about being a Traveller. When I mentioned it, she shut me down and told me first that she'd never claimed such a thing, and then that we may have been Travellers somewhere down the line. I stopped seeing those certain relatives. My mother started worrying about me getting too tanned during the long summers. Eventually those old stories stopped coming up and I stopped mentioning it, but I always remembered. I was always curious. And while I can't claim to be a proper Traveller, there's a lot in Le Bas's struggles with identity that I recognise. I even had a similar journey, spending a summer living in my car and going where the road took me, cooking at the roadside and making lay-bys and car parks my home. It was mostly a youthful adventure, something I'd always wanted to do, but I couldn't ignore the fact that it felt right; I couldn't stop thinking about all those stories from when I was younger, and the people that had come before me.
This book helped answer some of those questions. It filled in gaps of history and culture, and it resonated on several levels. It's also straightforwardly interesting, and a very evocative piece of travel writing. It makes me want to hit the road again.
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January 27, 2022I'm not sure how to use Goodreads yet....
February 4, 2022
Really wonderful, this. Memoir and history and travel diary and a struggle with identity that's resolved by realising that maybe it doesn't matter much after all. Gently lyrical and full of reflection. Recommended.
January 27, 2020
Incredibly well written. Loved its lilting sentences
August 5, 2022
A revealing look into Gypsy / Traveller history, culture, and ways of life. An emotional exploration of the author's own sense of identity and belonging.
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May 3, 2021Interesting and beautifully written book. I read this on my kindle and almost every search I did on Gypsy words or concepts came back with no entry in dictionaries or Wikipedia. That tells you how important books such as this are, and how important it is we read them. A fascinating and rich culture ignored and sinned against across decades and centuries.
July 5, 2021
Interesting insights into the hidden (to me) world of the UK Romany & Gypsy life. Damian Le Bas travels the country searching for the "atchin tans" or "stopping places" used for centuries by his ancestors. A study of place, language, culture clash, belonging and nature from an amiable narrator that paints a picture of Gypsy life in the 21st century. Does Damian find what he is looking for, or become reconciled to the reality of people of all cultures looking for solace on the journey of life?
April 28, 2019
Absolutely loved this book by @damianlebas about his quest to explore traditional stopping places. But really it is so much more than that. Loved finding out more about the history and culture and some of his Nan’s sayings made it into my journal, because it is rather sage advice. Also it made me realise how little I actually know about Travellers and Roma. I hope he writes another book! Longlisted for the #jhalakprize and I very much hope it will be on the shortlist which should be announced soon.
July 10, 2018
This is a fascinating look at the life of a Gypsy in the twenty first century, and what it means to be a travelling man. The author expresses anxiety and uncertainty about the place he occupies, never feeling entirely secure in the Gypsy community, and never quite fitting into the non-Gypsy world because of his heritage. He has had an unusual start to his life, with a scholarship to boarding school and then Oxford University, before returning to his family on their land.
His decision to take to the road and explore the ancient stopping places used by Gypsies for hundreds of years leads him all over Britain, and helps him to find a place he feels he belongs.
I found his story utterly enthralling. His writing style is measured, almost pausing for breath to allow the reader to take in the words. A sense of melancholy pervades much of the book, but it is not sad. The author is a solitary man, sometimes very lonely, but the occasional company of his wife and visits to his family infuse his writing with warmth.
I hope he writes more, I will certainly read it.
His decision to take to the road and explore the ancient stopping places used by Gypsies for hundreds of years leads him all over Britain, and helps him to find a place he feels he belongs.
I found his story utterly enthralling. His writing style is measured, almost pausing for breath to allow the reader to take in the words. A sense of melancholy pervades much of the book, but it is not sad. The author is a solitary man, sometimes very lonely, but the occasional company of his wife and visits to his family infuse his writing with warmth.
I hope he writes more, I will certainly read it.
February 3, 2019
From The Reading Hobbit
I've always been interested in Traveler culture, so when I came across this book I knew I just had to read it. As its written by someone from the travelers community, I decided that this would be a good place to start, and man did I love this book.
It's not so much about Traveler culture, it's not a tour guide-esque type of book telling endlessly about what is, in essence, quite an ungraspable thing (especially since apparently Traveler culture is as diverse as its people), but rather just about Le Bas himself and how he struggles to find his place in the world, in between two cultures that like to think themselves opposite of each other. Because he did not grow up traveling, some of his people decide he is not really a Traveler. Trying to find his place in the world and his identity, he embarks on a journey with his van, living on the road.
I really, really enjoyed reading this. Le Bas has a writing style that fluidly changes from lyrical and poetical, to hard and practical as he both describes his emotional state, nostalgia and strange things he encounters, but also the difficulties of day-to-day life in a van. He switches from experiencing loneliness to experiencing hostility from strangers to ridicule from family, all with a superb grace. His writing feels like a river, ever flowing, sometimes faster and slower, but unpredictable. Don't go looking for a clear story here, but if you like to read about emotion and senses, this is the book.
It reads almost like a diary, which, in theory, it is, a diary of his time on the road. You really get insight into his deepest and most complex emotions about his identity and what it means to be a Traveler. It's a very emotionally intelligent book, and he doesn't overromanticize this life he is searching for. He describes it as also a way of life, beautiful and difficult at the same time, even though it is clearly important to him.
It's both a memoir of his own and his family's life, but also a travelogue of the places he visits on this journey, the old stopping places. He describes his own physical and emotional journey through his Traveler history and the beautiful British landscape, but in between he weaves discussions of racism and discrimination and other serious topics gracefully into his observations of grass by the side of the road, trees or a rare highlander cow. While talking of his own van and how he makes a home of it, he describes how the "quintessential" Traveler wagon's came to be, not so very long ago as you might imagine, mixing past and present together, putting himself in a long history of Travelers.
But some of his writing stays closer to home, as he shows us the way his grandmother's trailer is decorated and how they lived when he was a child. He also discusses how varied the Traveler culture is and how changing and fleeting it's definition is. He discusses Traveler past and presence and future, but mostly what stays the same, those small things that make them this community. While perhaps this book won't leave you with facts and details about Traveler culture, it does give you a sense of how these people are and how they came to be like that.
A very special and beautifully written, almost poetic, book that I will definitely be rereading often.
I've always been interested in Traveler culture, so when I came across this book I knew I just had to read it. As its written by someone from the travelers community, I decided that this would be a good place to start, and man did I love this book.
It's not so much about Traveler culture, it's not a tour guide-esque type of book telling endlessly about what is, in essence, quite an ungraspable thing (especially since apparently Traveler culture is as diverse as its people), but rather just about Le Bas himself and how he struggles to find his place in the world, in between two cultures that like to think themselves opposite of each other. Because he did not grow up traveling, some of his people decide he is not really a Traveler. Trying to find his place in the world and his identity, he embarks on a journey with his van, living on the road.
I really, really enjoyed reading this. Le Bas has a writing style that fluidly changes from lyrical and poetical, to hard and practical as he both describes his emotional state, nostalgia and strange things he encounters, but also the difficulties of day-to-day life in a van. He switches from experiencing loneliness to experiencing hostility from strangers to ridicule from family, all with a superb grace. His writing feels like a river, ever flowing, sometimes faster and slower, but unpredictable. Don't go looking for a clear story here, but if you like to read about emotion and senses, this is the book.
It reads almost like a diary, which, in theory, it is, a diary of his time on the road. You really get insight into his deepest and most complex emotions about his identity and what it means to be a Traveler. It's a very emotionally intelligent book, and he doesn't overromanticize this life he is searching for. He describes it as also a way of life, beautiful and difficult at the same time, even though it is clearly important to him.
It's both a memoir of his own and his family's life, but also a travelogue of the places he visits on this journey, the old stopping places. He describes his own physical and emotional journey through his Traveler history and the beautiful British landscape, but in between he weaves discussions of racism and discrimination and other serious topics gracefully into his observations of grass by the side of the road, trees or a rare highlander cow. While talking of his own van and how he makes a home of it, he describes how the "quintessential" Traveler wagon's came to be, not so very long ago as you might imagine, mixing past and present together, putting himself in a long history of Travelers.
But some of his writing stays closer to home, as he shows us the way his grandmother's trailer is decorated and how they lived when he was a child. He also discusses how varied the Traveler culture is and how changing and fleeting it's definition is. He discusses Traveler past and presence and future, but mostly what stays the same, those small things that make them this community. While perhaps this book won't leave you with facts and details about Traveler culture, it does give you a sense of how these people are and how they came to be like that.
A very special and beautifully written, almost poetic, book that I will definitely be rereading often.
November 12, 2020
In truth, I know very little about the heritage of Gypsy people and finding out that they almost certainly hail from Egypt and/or the Indian continent was something new I’ve learned from reading this book. I now know the difference between the use of the words gipsy and Gypsy.
I’ve grown up aware of all the usual prejudices along the lines of ‘us and them’ and I can remember ‘gipsies’ knocking on the door when I was a child in the 1960s/70s trying to sell us lucky heather or wooden pegs and cursing us if we didn’t do so!
It’s probably reasonable to say that gipsies are perceived by the general public in the UK as a people who are pushy and confrontational, people who we just inherently mistrust, people who are out to make a fast quid from door knocking with offers to tarmac your drive, people to be watched incase they try to steal from your property, plus the reputation gipsies/travellers have for leaving rubbish and destruction in their wake. Certainly the author touches on these points himself whilst also going into giving the reader historical information that goes some way to explain the characteristics, mannerisms and ways of Gypsy folk.
The entrenched perceptions in which travellers are viewed which I suspect has been firmly associated to everyone and anyone who lives a different way of life to what is generally perceived to be ‘normal’ - and that society (often ignorantly) labels anyone deemed to fit the description under the umbrella name of being a ‘gipsy’.
So it was refreshing and enlightening to read Damian Le Bas’s book about the history and heritage of the Gypsy race and be invited to glimpse an insight into the Gypsy culture and the different symbolisms of each stopping place they have.
The comparisons between belonging and being different are very sensitively acknowledged, coupled with Damian’s own observations that - as in every race and culture - there are those amongst us that leave a bit to be desired in our outlook and actions.
Damian takes us with him on his journey to revisit old stopping places, old traveller camps, that he and his ancestors have used over time in a bid to better understand his heritage and along the way he manages to dispel some of ‘our’ old, entrenched superstitions as well.
And to cap it all, Damian and Candis sound just like considerate, kind, sensitive ‘regular’ folks! Who’d have thought eh!!
I’ve grown up aware of all the usual prejudices along the lines of ‘us and them’ and I can remember ‘gipsies’ knocking on the door when I was a child in the 1960s/70s trying to sell us lucky heather or wooden pegs and cursing us if we didn’t do so!
It’s probably reasonable to say that gipsies are perceived by the general public in the UK as a people who are pushy and confrontational, people who we just inherently mistrust, people who are out to make a fast quid from door knocking with offers to tarmac your drive, people to be watched incase they try to steal from your property, plus the reputation gipsies/travellers have for leaving rubbish and destruction in their wake. Certainly the author touches on these points himself whilst also going into giving the reader historical information that goes some way to explain the characteristics, mannerisms and ways of Gypsy folk.
The entrenched perceptions in which travellers are viewed which I suspect has been firmly associated to everyone and anyone who lives a different way of life to what is generally perceived to be ‘normal’ - and that society (often ignorantly) labels anyone deemed to fit the description under the umbrella name of being a ‘gipsy’.
So it was refreshing and enlightening to read Damian Le Bas’s book about the history and heritage of the Gypsy race and be invited to glimpse an insight into the Gypsy culture and the different symbolisms of each stopping place they have.
The comparisons between belonging and being different are very sensitively acknowledged, coupled with Damian’s own observations that - as in every race and culture - there are those amongst us that leave a bit to be desired in our outlook and actions.
Damian takes us with him on his journey to revisit old stopping places, old traveller camps, that he and his ancestors have used over time in a bid to better understand his heritage and along the way he manages to dispel some of ‘our’ old, entrenched superstitions as well.
And to cap it all, Damian and Candis sound just like considerate, kind, sensitive ‘regular’ folks! Who’d have thought eh!!
December 11, 2024
I borrowed this book from a couple sitting next to me in a 4 hour plane ride to keep myself from getting bored. It's not my usual preference of books, but I'm glad I came across it because it gave such an incredible insight into the rich Roma culture
The writing gets a bit dry here and there, and at times I was just trudging through the book to finish it, but would still highly recommend this book as it takes the reader on a beautiful journey across UK, getting second hand experience of a culture that is largely misunderstood.
This book and has left me curious and more eager to explore more Roma literature especially fiction, so if anyone has any recommendations please let me know!
Favourite quotes:
"-" I suspect fre would want to explain what it was, for fear of sapping it's Powers by giving it voice"
"On the other hand there is clearly a double standard when it comes to how intellectuals have tended to write about English - always in terms of evolution and improvement - and how they tended to write about Romani, in terms of degradation and decay."
"...travellers are more likely to call or text to let you know they won't be able to hinitba meeting, but there's no stigma attached to failing to do so if youre caught up with something important"
"A traveller sees it differently, wondering where the virtue is in prioritizing something that is no longer your priority."
"..."if my boys are too trashed to make hard decisions, cause someone thinks they are being rudeiw ever are they gonna be able to run their own business? Politeness don't buy bread"
-"I wonder if this marks another development in myself: a quiet abandonment of the need to progress; to keep track of time and rate"
The writing gets a bit dry here and there, and at times I was just trudging through the book to finish it, but would still highly recommend this book as it takes the reader on a beautiful journey across UK, getting second hand experience of a culture that is largely misunderstood.
This book and has left me curious and more eager to explore more Roma literature especially fiction, so if anyone has any recommendations please let me know!
Favourite quotes:
"-" I suspect fre would want to explain what it was, for fear of sapping it's Powers by giving it voice"
"On the other hand there is clearly a double standard when it comes to how intellectuals have tended to write about English - always in terms of evolution and improvement - and how they tended to write about Romani, in terms of degradation and decay."
"...travellers are more likely to call or text to let you know they won't be able to hinitba meeting, but there's no stigma attached to failing to do so if youre caught up with something important"
"A traveller sees it differently, wondering where the virtue is in prioritizing something that is no longer your priority."
"..."if my boys are too trashed to make hard decisions, cause someone thinks they are being rudeiw ever are they gonna be able to run their own business? Politeness don't buy bread"
-"I wonder if this marks another development in myself: a quiet abandonment of the need to progress; to keep track of time and rate"
March 22, 2021
This is a wonderful book. Firstly, it's beautifully written. The language is evocative without being overwrought, the structure feels aimless but is structured and it's one of those rare non-fiction books that reads like fiction - but without losing its informative, experience-based touch. The book is incredibly nuanced and delves into some serious topics but is still accessible and a pleasure to read. The balance of personal and historical, context and experience, is beautifully done. It also manages to really highlight just how atrociously Gypsy, Romany and Travellers have been and are treated without ever feeling like a polemic; it's the perfect book to give to your nice middle class friend or family member who refuses to realise how bigoted they are.
Reading this really felt like you were on the journey with Le Bas, from the intimate moments of solitude to the euphoric energy of festivals. I not only learnt an enormous amount about stopping places and Gypsy culture, but about the UK and even parts of France. The ending it particularly poignant and meaningful, especially after the wonderful journey to get there.
The whole book was such a joy to read. It's the perfect combination of a book that you can curl up with when you just want something great to read, and an important contribution to societal discourse at a time when vast swathes of people are still being unfairly targeted because of their race. I could confidently recommend this gem to anyone, and will do so.
Reading this really felt like you were on the journey with Le Bas, from the intimate moments of solitude to the euphoric energy of festivals. I not only learnt an enormous amount about stopping places and Gypsy culture, but about the UK and even parts of France. The ending it particularly poignant and meaningful, especially after the wonderful journey to get there.
The whole book was such a joy to read. It's the perfect combination of a book that you can curl up with when you just want something great to read, and an important contribution to societal discourse at a time when vast swathes of people are still being unfairly targeted because of their race. I could confidently recommend this gem to anyone, and will do so.
October 4, 2022
The author photograph on the back looks to be of a distinctly patrician-class blond young man, and the author notes say he has received a private boarding school and Oxford education. And yet here he is re-connecting or, rather, reinforcing a connection he never lost, with his Traveller roots. More than roots, clearly very much a lived experience in childhood, if not of moving around, still within the culture and language, and he has married someone of similar heritage (I love the switching between Candis and Cand) It seems he at least perceives his looks set him apart more than his education. (it's unclear whether he attributes these to those of his non-Romany relatives - and I don't think he ever fully spells out who those are)
It's a very personal and well written book but not otherwise un-researched, and he doesn't dump it all on us. Nor is there much, if anything, of the kind of baggage which besets so many (white male) non-fiction books - realistically it is a project but not a capital P Project with targets and will-he-or-won't-he complete his Quest suspense is absent, although there is a fair old bit of angst about where he fits in the world of Travellers (aside from avoiding letting his background slip at school, there doesn't seem to be a whiff of him wondering whether he fits in the non-Traveller world which is interesting) It is quite a male perspective - I sense he may be skirting around the women's experiences a little. That's both a bit frustrating and probably appropriate. Someone else's book to write.
It's a very personal and well written book but not otherwise un-researched, and he doesn't dump it all on us. Nor is there much, if anything, of the kind of baggage which besets so many (white male) non-fiction books - realistically it is a project but not a capital P Project with targets and will-he-or-won't-he complete his Quest suspense is absent, although there is a fair old bit of angst about where he fits in the world of Travellers (aside from avoiding letting his background slip at school, there doesn't seem to be a whiff of him wondering whether he fits in the non-Traveller world which is interesting) It is quite a male perspective - I sense he may be skirting around the women's experiences a little. That's both a bit frustrating and probably appropriate. Someone else's book to write.
January 9, 2025
I saw Damian Le Bas interviewed on a programme a few years ago, and thought he was very eloquent on a subject I knew little about, and so I resolved to buy and read his book.
In The Stopping Places he explores his roots, describing the Gypsy culture that he grew up in. He looks into the history and traditions of his people, where they came from, their nomadic past and their more settled future. I particularly enjoyed learning about the Romani tongue, and the words that have been borrowed into English, such as kushti and mush.
He is often viewed as an outsider himself, saying "my blue eyes and fair hair belying my origins, my picture of myself." Despite his upbringing he was confused about his identity, often left feeling like maybe he didn't belong:
"I can trace my Romany ancestry back at least six generations; I was brought up to know the Romani language; to learn the old tales and to keep the Romanipen – the cleanliness taboos of the old-fashioned Gypsies. I was raised, and still live, in a Romany psychological realm; a mental Gypsyland. But I have both Gypsy and non-Gypsy blood and so, in many Travellers’ eyes, I do not have the right to call myself a true-bred Romany."
And so he gets a van and kits it out to go travelling himself, to better understand his culture by visiting some of the atchin tans, the places across Britain where Travellers used to stop, living in wagons and benders. And so this personal journey of exploration and discovery reaches into the heart of who he is, by visiting the ghosts of Romanies past and meeting his contemporaries from Cornwall to Scotland.
It's a fascinating insight into another world, puncturing many stereotypes, and explaining the culture, welcoming us into places we can't usually access.
In The Stopping Places he explores his roots, describing the Gypsy culture that he grew up in. He looks into the history and traditions of his people, where they came from, their nomadic past and their more settled future. I particularly enjoyed learning about the Romani tongue, and the words that have been borrowed into English, such as kushti and mush.
He is often viewed as an outsider himself, saying "my blue eyes and fair hair belying my origins, my picture of myself." Despite his upbringing he was confused about his identity, often left feeling like maybe he didn't belong:
"I can trace my Romany ancestry back at least six generations; I was brought up to know the Romani language; to learn the old tales and to keep the Romanipen – the cleanliness taboos of the old-fashioned Gypsies. I was raised, and still live, in a Romany psychological realm; a mental Gypsyland. But I have both Gypsy and non-Gypsy blood and so, in many Travellers’ eyes, I do not have the right to call myself a true-bred Romany."
And so he gets a van and kits it out to go travelling himself, to better understand his culture by visiting some of the atchin tans, the places across Britain where Travellers used to stop, living in wagons and benders. And so this personal journey of exploration and discovery reaches into the heart of who he is, by visiting the ghosts of Romanies past and meeting his contemporaries from Cornwall to Scotland.
It's a fascinating insight into another world, puncturing many stereotypes, and explaining the culture, welcoming us into places we can't usually access.
November 1, 2020
Having grown up in a country and neighbourhood that had complicated (prejudiced) relations with its Romany people, I found this insight into their heritage and the history of Romanys in Britain so fascinating! I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know where Romany are from before reading this book. And, reading about the shaming of their nomadic culture and caravans in 2020 when vanlife is so popular did prompt a lot of thinking.
There's just so many gems especially in the first 1/2 to 3/4s of the book. I especially loved hearing about the author's Nan who is the last person in his family brought up in the "true" Romany travelling ways.
The only damper is that the latter bit of the book devolved into a travelogue that left me feeling underwhelmed. Here, the author is just travelling with his girlfriend (but she's not an active part of the story at all) and brings up a few different situations from these travels which felt disjointed. It felt like maybe the author was still working through some issues there and so there wasn't a compelling narrative around the feeling of being persecuted by other Romanys, for example.
I found the earlier stories of him experiencing his first proper Romany fair, and of finding friendly folk at different stopping places a lot more compelling.
There's just so many gems especially in the first 1/2 to 3/4s of the book. I especially loved hearing about the author's Nan who is the last person in his family brought up in the "true" Romany travelling ways.
The only damper is that the latter bit of the book devolved into a travelogue that left me feeling underwhelmed. Here, the author is just travelling with his girlfriend (but she's not an active part of the story at all) and brings up a few different situations from these travels which felt disjointed. It felt like maybe the author was still working through some issues there and so there wasn't a compelling narrative around the feeling of being persecuted by other Romanys, for example.
I found the earlier stories of him experiencing his first proper Romany fair, and of finding friendly folk at different stopping places a lot more compelling.
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