Book description
In the 1950s the Romani people lived on the brink of great change. In
their bright wooden wagons they journeyed between horse-fairs and
traditional stopping places - stoic, humorous and wild, often
poverty-stricken but protective of their freedom - on the fringes of a
society that was soon to close around them. Dominic Reeve describes his
life among the Gypsies: the feuds and fairs, the joyful muddy squalor of
an outdoor existence. He evokes an unforgettable cast of fireside
characters - bold children, fierce matriarchs and dandyish villains in
snap-brimmed hats - and tells of sharp deals done and rings run round
country policemen, of love affairs, dances and open-air feasting. Smoke
in the Lanes is the vivid, memorable and unsparing record of a
disappeared world. Dominic Reeve is now in his eighties. He lives and
works with his partner, the illustrator Beshlie, in the English
countryside. This was his first book, originally published in 1958.
