Rabbit Stew and a Penny or Two

A Gypsy Family’s Hard and Happy Times on the Road in the 1950s

De: Maggie Smith-Bendell

Narrado por: Patience Tomlinson

Born on a Somerset pea-field in 1941, the second of eight children in a Romani family, Maggie Smith-Bendell has lived through the years of greatest change in the travelling community's long history. As a child, Maggie rode and slept in a horse-drawn wagon, picked hops and flowers, and sat beside her father's campfire on ancient verges, poor but free to roam. As the twentieth century progressed, common land was fenced off and the traditional ways disappeared.

Eventually Maggie married a house-dweller and tried to settle for bricks and mortar, but she never lost the restless spirit, the deep love of the land and the gift for storytelling that were her Romani inheritance.

©2009 Maggie Smith-Bendell (P)2010 Isis Publishing Ltd

A Powerful Tale Of A Life On The Roads

Following the writer from her childhood through her work as a Romani activist, this is an endearing and very moving story of Romani life in the changing days after WWII and into the modern era. I adored it.

Not much substance in this Stew

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was an interesting History lesson about the Gypsy families in Britain but that was about all. I found myself wanting something to happen but it plodded along.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

It was an autobiography but didn't offer much in the way of a ripping yarn

Which character – as performed by Patience Tomlinson – was your favorite?

The main characters of the story were all performed well.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

It would depend who is playing the roles of the characters

Any additional comments?

I was disappointed with this story it just didn't go anywhere for me.