Surrey Life Review

I was delighted to have my books chosen for review in the March issue of  the beautiful, glossy Surrey Life magazine. I thought you might like to see it.



Book Corner

Each month, Juliette Foster looks at one of the best new book releases to come out of Surrey, plus we bring you literary dates for your diary and more...

 

 

The Review

Gypsies Stop there & No Gypsies Served by Miriam Wakerly

In 2010, Channel 4 broadcast the 60-minute documentary My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, which became a huge hit with British and American viewers. Audiences got hooked on the over-the-top frocks with enough fabric to wrap around a skyscraper and the sight of eager, young brides being chauffeured to church in Cinderella-style coaches.  Four years on, it seems that anything with 'My Big, Fat, Gypsy...' in the title stands a more than reasonable chance of making it to the small screen, yet in 2007 Surrey author Miriam Wakerly couldn't even find a publisher for her novels Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served, thanks to a perceived lack of interest in travellers. She eventually published the books herself and the result is an honest, even-handed attempt to explore the barriers dividing gypsies/travellers from settled communities.

Accurate portrait

Forget the romantic image of gypsies living in painted wagons idling away the evenings around camp fires and instead think Dale Farm meets middle England. In other words, the very real conflict between gypsies/travellers looking for a site to live on, the villagers who don't want them there, and the local councils who are legally obliged to provide permanent sites to accommodate them.

It's a huge theme and one that's skilfully 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 that 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's fitting that Wakerly uses his heart-piercing struggle for acceptance and reconciliation as the basis for No Gypsies Served.
 

Matter of Balance

The re-emergence of these novels is timely given the current media obsession with gypsies and the struggle to balance their needs against the rights of local communities. The jury's still out on whether the issue will ever be resolved to anyone's satisfaction but the fictitious goings on at Appley Green have an all too authentic ring about them in areas such as Chobham. Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served don't have to be read in any particular order as they stand as a sequel or prequel to each other. They've been ably woven together to tell a story that engages while raising important issues: can society ever do enough to atone for the historical wrongs perpetrated against gypsies? How will future generations judge our treatment of this unique community? Perhaps a Big, Fat, Gypsy TV extravaganza is the key to answering those questions.

A topical note from me:  With words such as 'racism' and 'xenophobia' running wild in tandem with the current upsurge of UKIP, perhaps this is a good time to remind ourselves of their meaning. Dictionary definitions are one thing, but constantly people fall into the trap of being 'racist' by labelling a group as homogeneous, usually with derogatory implications, rather than as a collection of different individuals.

How can this give any person respect and the opportunity to fulfil their potential if they are prejudged?

Gypsies Stop there and No Gypsies Served are both available as paperbacks and on Kindle  Amazon

Take a look at some of the reviews there, if you have time.

Do drop in to Appley Green ... as you're passing by!

My three novels are all set in Appley Green – an amalgam of many lovely Surrey villages. I think it is the village green that makes them so special – so English!

Leaves beginning to turn in Frimley Green

I have been lucky enough to take holidays in beautiful, culturally varied and sunny parts of the world.

So, why would I not set my novels in a more exotic location?

A shady spot in Elstead

It is wonderful to see new and exciting places; very stimulating, as I am sure other holiday-makers will agree. For me, a visit does not dig deep enough into everyday lives, try as I may to talk to the locals and soak up their culture, history and traditions; so stretching my imagination into the realms of their reality would be risky.

Surrey is a lovely place to live. There may be prettier places – the chocolate-box honey-stone cottages in the Cotswolds, where I come from originally, for example. But perhaps ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, as the saying goes.

‘Rush-grass and bog-cotton could look bleak on a rainy day though, she knew that; but Steph loved the wilderness she was used to; the golden gorse and purple heather of summer, the all-pervasive bracken that would change its hue from springtime acid green to the copper tones of autumn.’ (from Shades of Appley Green)

I feel blessed to have lived in Surrey for about 35 years – with its relatively low crime rates, desirable homes, good amenities and really rather nice people, as well as an abundance of trees and panoramic views. Traffic can be irksome, in places, but an author can do something about that! This was one of the delights in creating my own village!

Although within easy reach of London, it is  ‘ …a village not blighted by the throb and fumes of through-traffic. Locals generally stuck to an unwritten code that the able-bodied should walk or cycle to local amenities when possible.’



Taken today ...

Anyone living in, say, Chicago, Manchester, Helsinki or Delhi might read about people’s lives in Appley Green and feel  transported to another world; while British residents will recognise a place they know, in some way or another; as well as the sense of community, family relationships and the human spirit rising against the odds.

I set my first novel Gypsies Stop tHere  in Appley Green, giving the village this name for two reasons. I wanted the word Green in it, and I thought Appley would loosely resonate with Appleby in Cumbria famous for the Gypsy Horse Fairs. Later, I stood on Appley Beach on the Isle of Wight and decided then that the name of my fictitious English village would be Appley Green. It just sounded right.

My first two novels, Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served  do venture into another world that is on our doorstep all around England, but only as far as I feel I should, as a non-Gypsy.  Shades of Appley Green  is about something else.

‘Steph is a special, but troubled young woman. Chosen by the most venerated man in Appley Green to fulfil his mission, she feels publicly admired rather than privately loved. She certainly does not trust men!

In helping a once famous, elderly architect with Parkinson’s regain a social life, she finds herself taking personal risks, fending off objections, blind to danger. We wait for the moment when it dawns on Steph what is driving her deep-seated obsession; for only then can she find the happiness she deserves.

Appley Green is a charming English village. Everyone says so. But people are still people. With the emotional turmoil that comes with love, birth and death, a close-knit community can harbour betrayal and guilt, as well as joy and laughter.’

The book cover’s summery photograph was taken in Tilford Green. Landlord of this ‘quintessential English Country pub’, The Barley Mow, built in 1705, a stone’s throw from the park benches, told me the reason one of the seat arms was missing. A Gypsy had tied up his horse and … well you can guess. He had no idea about my first two novels, so that was quite strange.

 

“Nestling quietly in a middle-England wasteland of sandy heath, Appley Green straddles the boundaries of two counties south west of London.”