Despite the recent popularity of the Gipsy Kings and their “pop” versions of Romany music, there is very little literature about gypsies and their culture. Gypsy music has been assimilated into Western European taste, Django Reinhardt being a prime example, but apart from Hancock (1998) there is very little available on other aspects of Romany life. However, this is not the only reason to welcome James Hayward's Gypsy Jib.
The book's introduction is an essential starting point, for it explains the author's background and his connection with the Romany way of life. His grandmother, born Ada Florence Scamp in 1889, was the last member of his family to be born “on the road” for shortly after that her father William Scamp took to living “in bricks” in Dover. It was here that the author's father was born and raised, still using the Romany language when conversing or dealing with others of his kind. When James Hayward came on the scene, he found Ada to be “a regal woman who carried herself with great dignity” and from whom James “first heard those unusual words”. With extracts from County Records, reproductions of ancient grainy photographs and chronologies, Hayward over the next 20 pages outlines the spread of the gypsies across England, Scotland and Wales and the difference between this diaspora and the tinkers who came from Ireland and who had a very different language called Shelta, as opposed to Romany which originated in Northern India. The dictionary itself then follows and it is here that the language's origin becomes evident, for none of the words bear any relationship to European equivalents. Rai for gentleman, Pani, Parni or Pawni for water and Khil or Kil for butter all throw the spellchecker into a flurry of red wavy underlining. Romany also like to make up words, many unpronounceable to the newcomer, such as Boronashemescrotan meaning Epsom race course, where Boro equals Big, and Ashemescrotan means racing place. Romany to English is followed by English to Romany and the book finishes with a necessarily short bibliography.
Hayward's book, which casts light on the subject from an insider, is to be recommended for both general libraries and more specialist collections. It will be a classic to be placed alongside Wedeck (1973).
