"A ROMANY LIFE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22320, 18 January 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

"A ROMANY LIFE"

GIPSY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY It is satisfying and enlightening, after reading what novelists and others have, to say about gipsies, to read what a real Romany has to say about his people, and incidentally about himself. Gipsy Petulengro, who became known to a great public in England through his wireless talks, has written his autobiography apparently as a result of the success of 'those broadcasts,, and in doing so has performed a worth-whilo task thoroughly as well as in entertaining manner. Not the least of the appeal in his book arises from the candour with which he relates certain happenings having to do with gipsy shrewdness in wresting a livelihood from the world at large, but ho makes it very plain that shrewdness alone is not the only attribute of the Romany. Indeed, a commendable industry and training, from the cradle onward, is the foundation of the proud independence of the true gipsy, who, with good cause, scorns the bonds which tie the ordinary mortal to the workaday round. There is something very fine in this chronicle, as given in the glimpses which it shows of the strength of blood ties and a philosophy that would carry many a man safely and far. The work is illustrated by the author. "A Romany Life" (Gipsy Petulengro). Methuen.