No Gypsies Served paperback now in stock! Hurray!

I recently re-released Gypsies Stop tHere on Amazon (first published in 2008) and am delighted to say that No Gypsies Served has followed in its tracks. You may like to read them in the order they were written and published. although Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served can standalone as stories, even though they are connected.  

In fact No Gypsies Served, first published in 2010, two years after Gypsies Stop tHere, is both a sequel and a prequel! How cool is that? This is explained on back cover.

Kay campaigned for the Appley Green Gypsy Site in Gypsies Stop tHere and the sequel/prequel picks up the story. 'Life in the village was going so well, until the phone call and letter. Then comes the disastrous site opening. Worst of all, Dunstan, whom she realises is her best friend and ally, is giving her the cold shoulder for some unknown reason.

Dunstan is taking an emotional trip down memory lane, into childhood as a Gypsy on the road, and his eventual break from his people. Why is he so angry with Kay that he keeps away from her? Chances of a longed for reconciliation look slim ...'

I hope you enjoy and find them thought provoking.

Part 1 - Looking back at the Gypsy and Traveller world, from 2008 to now

Since the publication of my first novel, Gypsies Stop tHere, in the spring of 2008, surely there must have been changes in the Gypsy and Traveller world. The book, along with the sequel / prequel, No Gypsies Served, presents a snapshot of how things were, using a fusion of fact and fiction to weave a story. Romany Gypsies, Irish Travellers and people not from their communities have said lovely things about them – see the reviews on Amazon and more inside each one! But this post is not really about my books.

Firstly, as reminder, let’s take a look back at some blog posts I wrote a while back. You can pick and mix according to what catches your eye and takes your fancy!

My next blog post will take a look at what has gone on since and what is happening now. Have things improved, progressed for the better or do the same problems persist?

 ** Please click on green titles for links **

Sunday, 6 December 2009
 
How come Gypsies and Travellers?

This is what seems to intrigue people. I am not a Gypsy myself. How come I am writing a story with a theme that hinges on Gypsies and Travellers, their origins, culture and present-day problems?

At Yateley a few years ago

At Bourne Hall Museum event

Friday, 12 February 2010

'Gypsy' or Traveller'?

A simple question often asked. But how complicated the answer!!

This looks at terminology and ‘labels’ and how easy it is to unwittingly offend.

Sunday, 19 December 2010

Fiction Slips into Reality

It really is stranger than fiction when fiction becomes reality. I felt as if I had stepped into a scene from my own novel Gypsies Stop tHere. The public meeting was to discuss proposals for an inevitable development at Deepcut.
 

Thursday, 20 January 2011

Big Fat Gypsy Wedding

Could not let TV Channel 4’s Big Fat Gypsy Wedding go by without offering a few thoughts – could I? It wouldn’t be right!
Firstly, these were, going by their accents, Irish Travellers rather than Romany Gypsies.
 

 

Monday, 7 February 2011

Another Grumble on Big Fat Gypsy Weddings

I understand Channel 4’s aim to achieve high ratings. To suck in an audience that might ultimately consider more serious aspects of Gypsy and Traveller life and culture, you need to lighten up first. I get that. But at what cost?

The first paragraphs of this post were published in The Guardian – Letters to the Editor (first one on the page!)
 

Friday, 11 February 2011

 

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings not so bad?

Jake Bowers speaking for the Romany Gypsy community: http://bit.ly/h9TldF on Daybreak.

I may be revising my view of Channel 4 documentary, dubbed ‘mockumentary’. I hope it really does help relations between Gypsies and non-Gypsies, rather than make for more bad feeling. Excellent representation on BBC Breakfast show this week. http://bbc.in/e0kK5J

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

More media stuff on BFGW

Various media links …
 

 

Saturday, 11 June 2011

Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month

Have you heard of Travellers Got Talent?

No? Well, at the time of writing, June is Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. It began three or four years before. Various events displaying and exploring the culture and traditions of Gypsies, Travellers and Roma take place around the country.
 

 

Monday, 10 October 2011

Why I cannot leave Gypsies and Travellers alone

I could have chosen an easier subject for a novel. Friends and family advised me against it; an agent told me a publisher would not consider a title with ‘Gypsy’ in it. All of this spurred me on. This was around 2006–7.

Since I am not a Gypsy myself, many people ask me how? and why?
 

 

Monday, 2 July 2012

Romany Day - I was away with the Gypsies!



At a Romany Day, Tilford

On Saturday (30 June) I went with a supply of my three books to 'Romany Day', held at the Rural Life Centre in Tilford, a fascinating outdoors museum near Farnham, Surrey, well-worth a visit any time. (The front cover of my third novel has a picture of Tilford Green.)

 

Sunday, 10 March 2013

 

London Roma Nation Day - 7-8 April

This may make uncomfortable, even shocking, reading but I was interested to gather opinions ...

You will find the words: ‘eviction, deportation ... murder, fascism … ethnic cleansing … apartheid … genocide …’, and yes, this was 2013.

Gypsies Stop tHere has an Eastern European character, vital to the plot, who is a Roma immigrant in Britain. No Gypsies Served goes a little further in drawing attention to extreme racism prevalent in parts of Europe. The reality, however, is much worse, as this post reveals.

 

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

The Latest on Gypsy and Traveller Sites

There is to be a great meeting in Westminster in October to discuss the provision of sites for Gypsies and Travellers. 

As you may know, my first two novels, Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served have story lines relating to the shortage of Gypsy sites and relationships between.the travelling community and 'mainstream' society. 

 

Thursday, 26 September 2013

Surrey Gypsy Traveller Communities Forum

It is bit of a mouthful, isn't it? But it does say exactly what it is. If you are interested in Gypsy issues but, like me, decided that the meeting in London would be an expensive trip unless you are funded by an organisation, then another October meeting may be for you. For some years now I have attended the Surrey Gypsy Traveller Communities Forum when I can, as an observer.
 

Monday, 26 May 2014

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.

 

That's about it for now; I hope this did not cause too much verbal indigestion. Look out for the next blog post to bring us all up to date. I am intrigued, I hope you are too!

My books are available on Amazon or through Waterstones. Just click on the book covers.

 

Waterstone's book launch party!

I’m not sure how many book launches happen these days, but I think it is a fantastic way to mark the occasion that you have produced a new book and Yay! it is now available to buy and read.

About 40 people came along, about the right number for the upper floor of the shop – a bigger crowd might have resulted in wine spillages and all manner of unruly behaviour!

Sophie from Camberley People was a lovely surprise guest and she stayed until the end, clearly taking mental notes as well as photographs. Camberley People   Cath, Camberley Waterstone’s manager, opened the evening and introduced The Mayor of Surrey Heath, Councillor Tim Dodds, who pioneered Surrey Heath’s first Literary Festival last summer.



At Camberley Literary Festival 2011

He spoke very kindly of my books and his blog post appeared promptly the next morning The Mayor's 'report' He also said how important it is to support bookshops in this age of the e-reader. The Mayor’s personal preference is for a book he can pick up and hold; indeed, he was very taken with my book cover. On the other hand, his wife, also at the party, now prefers her Kindle. Opinion is often divided in this way; meanwhile we authors and publishers need to offer our books in both formats, which reminds me I must get around to getting No Gypsies Served on Kindle …

I failed to speak briefly and probably went on for too long!! But I felt I must explain that this ‘modern village novel’, the first of a new series (did I hear ‘Oh no!’ from my husband), has nothing to do with Gypsies and Travellers this time, although it is set in the same place. The style of book cover indicates something new. 



Thanks to Camberley People for photos



As suggested by Cath, the manager at Camberley Waterstone’s, I did a reading and decided on the 'blurb', Prologue and opening of Chapter 1. Another, more random extract, will be appearing on another blog post on Wednesday, 21 March Love a Happy Ending

As someone also representing the local community - for this novel is very much to do with community life - Chris Pitt, Councillor for Frimley Green and Deepcut, also spoke about how he first met me at a Gypsy and Traveller Forum and later enjoyed my first two novels, Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served. A lovely comment he once made in an email: ‘They are amazingly readable, and I tore through each within about 48 hours of purchasing them. Couldn’t put them down wanting to find out what happened.’ There are local plans for a Traveller site up the road from where I live, so these novels are even more topical and of greater local relevance than when first published.

It was all captured on my husband’s movie camera but I’m not sure if this film will ever be released for the general viewing public; something to show my grandchildren, perhaps, in years to come.

This is rather late as I have been frantically busy since last week. A big thank you to everyone there – friends, neighbours, old work colleagues, some people I have never met before. Your support is much appreciated.

A Time and a Place

Do you like to read books where you can pinpoint the place? Does it annoy you if you cannot tell when the story takes place?

Someone once told me that the year should be left vague so the book does not become ‘dated’. Really? For historical fiction the era is, by definition, essential. To be topical, Call the Midwife is, importantly, true life story of the 1950s. Ian McEwan’s Saturday is a specific day in 2003, and A Week in December (2007) by Sebastian Faulks reflects society as it was then. On the other hand, fantasy or science fiction might be anytime in the future, anywhere, bounded only by the author’s and reader’s imagination.

I can only assume this person was thinking of a particular genre where a book packed with eternal truths could belong to the ‘here and now’, keep fresh for a few years and not exceed its sell by date. But to keep this illusion, so many references would have to be excluded. I struggled with this. Almost always I like to be clear on the time – and the place.

When writing Gypsies Stop tHere I deliberately made it fairly obvious, eluding to Tony Blair and George W Bush for example, when it was written – about 2007. Laws relating to Gypsies and Travellers and relationships between them and mainstream society are pivotal to the story. It presents a snapshot in time; some aspects have stood still, others have changed – like the government! Maybe, as time passes it will mature, not become out of date. As the real-life situation evolves, and perceptions shift, I hope people will be intrigued to see how unbelievable some things were, even five years ago. As it says in the notice that the activist, young Natalie, puts up on Appley Green notice board, ‘How will future generations look back …? Are we any better?’ Think of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and, more recently, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Since writing this, my first novel, Channel 4’s Big Fat Gypsy Weddings have come and, fortunately, gone; Dale Farm in Essex hit the headlines all over the world; many Gypsies have published their own memoirs. When I researched and wrote this book I had academic studies; real life encounters and a few scarce books to work with (all listed in the Bibliography). We have indeed moved on and I hope that will add to the interest in reading Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served now and in the future.

As for Shades of Appley Green– this is set in the present day, for sure, around 2011. It is not a documentary, it is meant to be entertaining, but again it does reflect some current social issues, the plight of many old folk, the way single parenthood can be a struggle and how traffic can seriously affect the way a village functions as a community. These themes are not the story but do provide the background. In five years’ time all these views of village life may have changed, while human emotions stay pretty much the same.

Of course the location matters! No argument there, surely. Classics like Wuthering Heights, Lorna Doone; Thomas Hardy and Sir Walter Scott and thousands of other writers prove that. With their strong and wonderful sense of place, I like to think of Anita Shreve’s many brilliant novels with their robust setting in New Hampshire, each book set in a different era but often the same stretch of coast, the same building. This adds a whole new dimension to each of her novels, in my view.

I hope to make a series of novels set in Appley Green, where each one will connect with the others. Some familiar characters will pop up. There is a raft of characters in the first one of this series, Shades of Appley Green – after all, it is a village! They have lived curious lives but cannot all be developed in one story and I hope each book will leave people wanting more. That’s the theory anyway! I certainly want to find out more about them which makes me just itch to get on with the next book.

Gypsies Stop tHere is about to be reprinted and is available on Kindle. No Gypsies Served is available as paperback. Shades of Appley Green is a Kindle book will be available as paperback in about two weeks time but can be pre-ordered. All three are set in Appley Green, as it happens.

Gypsies Stop tHere on Amazon       No Gypsies Served on Amazon  Shades of Appley Green on Kindle

First Review of Shades of Appley Green

First lovely review of Shades of Appley Green - Famous Five Plus review by Sue Fortin
Excerpt from Sue's review :

Miriam Wakerly has a lovely, easy style of writing that draws you into the story and keeps you there at a nice pace.  The story touches on difficult issues in a sensitive manner and in a style that is not uncomfortable for the reader.  The end, for me, was very emotional and did, in fact, bring a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes.  A lovely story of one woman’s journey to understanding and accepting her past and ultimately finding an inner-peace  and happiness.

Shades of Appley Green is my third novel and this time has nothing to do with Gypsies.

Shades of Appley Green  available on Kindle now Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com 

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 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.

What shall I call it?

The title, cover, blurb on the back, author’s name, opening sentence or first page – all these elements can seduce or repel!

Titles may intrigue or even mystify; define the essence of the book; or may seem a little tired or well worn. A title might declare its ‘genre’ and above all should help any potential reader decide if this book is for them! Whether it's on the table or shelves in Waterstones or the Amazon screen, we want those book-loving browsers to stop and look at it.

My first title Gypsies Stop tHere is odd. Yes, I know it is and it’s meant to make people do a double take. The printer thought the file had not been proofread and apparently said, ‘I don’t think we can work with this’. We did laugh about this afterwards but, until I realised what the problem was, my stomach was doing somersaults.

‘Gypsies Stop tHere’ is possibly the shortest synopsis ever! What it means, of course, is the nub of the book – Gypsies are always told to stop over there, never over here.

Its sequel/prequel No Gypsies Served was called many things before I settled for this title. I wanted them to be a pair, to show they belong together although they can standalone. You could read either one first.
I was at a meeting in London with the Irish Traveller Movement, taking notes. The speaker was harking back to hard times when signs such as ‘No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs,’ were commonplace in B&Bs and so on. Another such shocking sign was ‘No Gypsies Served’. I wrote this down and it jumped back at me from the page. I circled round it several times with my pen – I had found my title.

Shades of Appley Green is set in the same village but nothing to do with Gypsies or Travellers. Initially I wrote this in three sections that became A Light Shade, A Darker Shade that went back 16 years into a troubled time for the main character, and finally A Bright Shade. I played with the word ‘Green’ – this being arguably the essence of the British village – and a colour, and colour can reflect mood. This is perhaps over analysing! I was advised that this kind of book should have a chronological sequence of events. Good advice to follow? Not sure. In the end I did and I didn’t! But I kept the title.

I think my mother would have been pleased with this book. We lived in the Cotswolds, she often had her head in a Miss Read village book and green was her favourite colour – I think it must be mine too, it comes in so many different shades.

More than I expected - meeting Judy Astley!

It was good to go along to a local library the other evening and hear a well-known author, namely Judy Astley, talk about her life as a writer. Her books are undoubtedly in the genre of commercial women’s fiction and very popular – all 16 of them!

What was so curious to me was how much of what she said about her past resonated with me. We are of similar age I would guess but here’s a few more aspects that jumped out:

· Memories of early schooldays: would prefer to be ‘kept in’ writing a ‘composition’ than being in the playground. No good at sport. Absolutely!
· Always had her head in a book. Oh me too! Loved Enid Blyton before moving on to other things. Yes, yes, I used to devour them greedily.
· Favourite Christmas present would be – well, what do you think? Books. I remember requesting a set of 5/- book tokens. It was all I really wanted.
· Going along to the library. That’s me, too. On my bike, saddle-bag stuffed with books.
· A’ levels English and French in common. University days – Judy did English – I was never that good at decisions so I did a mixture of English, French, Sociology and Politics. Both did secretarial courses too and to this day appreciate the skills it gave us, although forever had to fight the maxim ‘once a typist, always a typist’.
· Made clothes – I’d always done this, first for teddies and dolls, then for myself in teenage years. Knitted, sewn from paper patterns or made up, crocheted (oh those holey dresses of the 60s!). Judy went as far as becoming a dress designer and got involved in Liberty’s. I did sell a couple of knitting patterns to magazines but never went any further. And patchwork. Yes we both did that as well! Maybe it’s just our era! And – listen up – we both sold bags to a shop in Oxford!!
· Writing, writing, writing … always there in the background. Judy started at a tender age to send off stories to magazines and learned what rejection meant. I began writing stories when stuck in remote corner of Ireland in my early twenties, did not submit anything until later. Did get published regularly in Romance, True Story and My Story – and Christian Herald!! But in between many were rejected.
· We both went to writing classes. I did The Writing School course by correspondence and went to local classes too (where I met @MarikaCobbold !). Both learned the importance of writing for a defined audience or readership, which underpinned my work in PR and marketing and writing articles freelance.
· At work, freelance freedoms and flexibility suited us both. Judy was sometimes caught out writing at work when employed (love this)! I had a huge number of jobs, variably employed and self-employed. My CV is a nightmare - but I was more inclined to stare out of the window, restless and fidgety, when working for a company or other organisation. (Perhaps if you are a bit creative you cannot bear to be managed? Discuss!)
· Judy won a short story competition and her brilliance clearly shone through! Her first novel was accepted for publication (without an agent – impressive) and the rest … is history. Writing commercially successful books she could earn her living by writing – bliss. Now she has an agent and 16 novels under her belt. I have temporarily given up pursuing the agent-publisher trail and decided to get on with writing novels in my retirement and self-publish. It does not provide me with a living (certainly not, says hubby) but I am writing what I enjoy and other people seem to like reading them.
· Another point on which we differ. I asked Judy which gave her most pleasure - the ‘process’ of writing or the ‘result’! Without hesitation she said ‘finishing the book’! I actually really enjoy the writing bit and feel quite bereft when I reach the end. Yes, it is immensely satisfying to see the final product, of course, but for me, not the main reason for writing. Odd perhaps, but true.

It was so good to meet her – along with two other writer friends and, with much in common, I hope we may meet again some day. Now I must go get her books from the library!!

A taste of novel No Gypsies Served

Foreword by the Author

No Gypsies Served is a sequel and prequel to Gypsies Stop tHere but both books can standalone. Like Gypsies Stop tHere, it is fiction, a story to entertain. So, someone asked me, “It’s not the truth then?” This was a difficult one to answer.

The story, the characters, even the places are made up. Dunstan is not related to anyone with the surname Smith and Appley Green is not on any map! But certainly I have listened to real life anecdotes, read factual books and consulted web sites, all of which helped form the backdrop of the novel. Issues relating to social injustices, ethnic identity, opinions, laws of the land, alleged crime – the list is long – do exist, however. Some aspects are more factual than others: for example, the snippets you will read from O NEVO DROM are real.
(Romani on-line magazine www.onevodrom.blogspot.com)

There again, reality can be dreary; a daily diary, recording raw, mundane detail, may neither highlight a meaningful message nor make compelling reading! Some scenes or events in the story have been inspired by what I have heard people say. Some have sprung from my imagination and I have striven to create these in the spirit of what I believe to be authentic.

For sure you cannot please all of the people all of the time, but I have tried to be fair and to listen to all sides. In Gypsies Stop tHere a divide lies between Gypsies and non-Gypsies. No Gypsies Served touches on a three-way stalemate between Romany or English Gypsies, Irish Travellers and non-Gypsies; although this is not meant to imply that harmony cannot or does not exist between these groups. No Gypsies Served also shows how history can throw light on current events.

I have heard Gypsies describe themselves as ‘proud’, ‘secretive’ and ‘misunderstood’ and must confess that the first two traits do stand in the way of attempting to rectify the third. I can understand, however, that because of past and present inhumanity towards them, many are mistrustful. I thank all those who have helped me.

No Gypsies Served is peppered with reminders of possible consequences of a Gypsy or Traveller leaving their community to join mainstream society. It is so easy for non-Gypsies to say that Gypsies and Travellers should all live in houses and fit in with everyone else.

Of course, there are many other happenings in both these books. The relationship between Kay and Dunstan is perhaps the vital theme and I know the various interconnecting storylines in an English village captivate a wide readership. I hope that includes you. Happy reading!

© Miriam Wakerly March 2010

Still Bugged by Genres

Yes, I’m slightly bugged now by the Genre debate. Yes, we understand the need, but … but …

What about Life of Pi? Or Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-Time? The Kite Runner? And novels with social comment like Small Island by Andrea Levy or Brick Lane by Monica Ali? Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Quicksolver? Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks? Just a tiny sample of popular books that perhaps do not slot easily into an existing category, but had they not been taken up by a publisher, the reading public would be the poorer. They all have ‘something to say or show’. Are they just 'general fiction'?

Since my post on the vexed question of Genre, many more classifications – and is classification synonymous with genre? – have popped into my head. So is there room for another I wonder? I would love to hear from publishers or anyone else who is knowledgeable on these matters. A term that captures real issues/ethics/substance within the framework of a captivating story. Thus the reader is both entertained and enriched. Such novels may or may not be ‘literature’ – perhaps the most challenging term of all to define. They may or may not be exploring ethics or politics.

‘Faction’ does not quite do it for me. ‘Social comment fiction’? ‘Reality fiction’? ‘Themed’? Sue Cook on The Write Lines suggested ‘intelligent story-telling’.

Perhaps the elusive genre already exists. If so, please tell me.

A Question of Genre – is it vexed?

I am sure many writers, agents and publishers can quote chapter and verse at me on the thorny issue of genre; it is commercially vital to brand and pigeonhole books so that potential readers know what they are getting. Targeting and demographics are key.

So ‘modern/contemporary fiction’, as per BIC classification for ‘non-genre’ novels, does not perhaps cut the mustard. But what if your novel is neither romance, crime, sci-fi, historical, fantasy, erotic, thriller, nor literary? Not adventure, saga, chick-lit, grit-lit or whatever term is knocking around at the time? Nor is it the more esoteric metafiction or allegory? Perhaps it is a cross-breed, like historical romance. But if it cannot claim to fall under any such labels, does this mean it should never have been written? If so, is this not the tail wagging the dog?

A reader described Gypsies Stop tHere: “…a good read, this story provides an entertaining way of understanding a very important social issue ...” Well, is there a genre that covers this? I don’t know. Socio-rural reality page-turner? Prejudice-challenging fiction? Or perhaps simply ‘other’.

Focusing on the Gypsy theme, an academic writer recently said, “Miriam Wakerly's books Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served (coming out March 2010) are a window to the bigotry that a race of people in the UK still experience. Textbooks illustrating statistics of what racism is like are all well and good but what Wakerly adds is an accessible and readable 'way in' to the situation for the general reader, and the storytelling approach reinforces we are talking about real people here, not statistics. I would recommend that people read these books as a reflection of the reality of contemporary Britain.”

This all sounds terribly grave but there are many other happenings within my pages, I promise you! Relationships and various interconnecting storylines in an English village seem to ‘captivate’ a wide-ranging readership, so they tell me.

I could define my novels as a ‘village-novel-with-edge’ or something like that. It’s not Miss Read or Rebecca Shaw. I cannot think of a word that single-handedly encapsulates it. Can you? If so, please let me know!

If anyone wants to quote from this blog then that’s fine but please credit me! Thanks.
© Miriam Wakerly