V.
D. The Roma in Great Britain
ACTON, Thomas A. “The Social Construction and Consequences
of Accusations of False Claims to Ethnicity and Cultural Rights.” Paper
presented at the Leiden Foundation Centennial Conference, 13-15 September
1990, at Leiden, Holland.
This paper shows British anti-Roma sentiment
as well as that of other Western democracies.
ACTON, Thomas A., ed. “Current Changes amongst British Gypsies and Their
Place in International Patterns of Development.” Proceedings of the
Research and Policy Conference of the National Gypsy Educational Council.
Peter’s College, Oxford, 26-28 March 1971.
These academic papers by British, French, and
Czech authors—lay and clergy—about the British Roma, are designed to reduce
national misunderstandings between the Roma and dominant communities.
ADAMS, B., J. OKELY, D. MORGAN, and D. SMITH. Gypsies and Government
Policy in England. Heinemann Center for Environmental Studies, 1975.
This detailed work tells of the status of the
Roma in Great Britain and the bias they face there.
ALTHEER, David. “Gypsies Are a Racial Group under Discrimination Act.”
Times
(London) Law Report, 29 July 1988, no. 14.
This legal report contains factual data about
the life of the Romany minority in Great Britain.
BINNS, Dennis. “The Most Persecuted Minority.” The Manchester Paper,
May 1986, p. 4.
Focused on Romany human rights, this article
observes that a call for the extermination of the Romany was still a way
to politically campaign in 1984 England.
BORROW, G. The Zincali. London: John Murray, 1841; Lavengro. London:
John Murray, 1843; The Romany Rye. London: Murray, 1857; The
Bible in Spain. London: John Murray, 1843.
The author not only translated the Gospel of
St. Luke into Spanish Romani for the British and Foreign Bible Society,
but also created many fictional works, chiefly about the Roma of Spain.
BOSWELL, Silvester. The Book of Boswell: Autobiography of a Gypsy.
Edited by J. Seymour. London: Gollancz, 1970.
This memoir of an English Roma contains descriptions
of Romany life in Britain.
“Burn Gypsies: Belfast Councilor to Visit Glasgow.” Bulletin issued by
the Belfast City Hall, 5 February 1988.
This bulletin discusses Irish intolerance of
the Roma, such as a call for the incineration of Gypsies in a garbage dump.
COVERLEY, B. “Fellow Travellers.” New Statesman Society 7 (January
6, 1995): pp. 22-3.
This author says that about 50,000 Roma and Travellers
suffer constant discrimination in Great Britain, which has until only recently
gone unchallenged.
FRASER, Angus M. “The Travellers: Developments in England and Wales, 1953-1963.”
Journal
of the Gypsy Lore Society, Vol. XXXXIV, No. 3 (1964), pp. 83-112.
This detailed article addresses the lifestyle
and social problems of the Roma who live and travel in Wales and England.
“Gypsies Face Apartheid Policy.” Leeds Other Paper 377 (17 May 1985):
pp. 6-7.
This reveals 1985 English apartheid laws, which
barred from the Bradford area those Roma who lacked permits.
HANCOCK, I. “Marko: Stories of My Grandfather.” Lacio Drom, supplement
to no. 6 (December 1985): pp. 53-60.
The author relates memories of his London ancestors.
HOLMES, Colin. “The German-Gypsy Question in Britain, 1904-1906.” In Lunn,
ed., Hosts, Immigrants and Minorities, pp. 134-59.
This essay identifies escalating anti-Roma terrorism
in Germany as the major cause for increased Romany immigration to Britain
around 1900.
IVATTS, Arthur. “The Travelling Communities: History, Culture and Educational
Opportunities.” Contact Point for the Roma and Sinti Issues (CPRSI).
Office for Democratic Institu-tions and Human Rights. CPRSI Newsletter
2, no. 4 (August 1996): p. 2.
This official report by the education ministry
discusses problems of ethnic identity of the Travelling Roma, by far the
largest group among the Travelling Communities in Great Britain.
JARMAN, A.O.H., and E. JARMAN. The Welsh Gypsies: Children of Abram
Wood. Cardiff, 1991.
This history of the Welsh Roma features their
origins and first settlement there.
MAYALL, David. English Gypsies and State Policies. Hatfield: University
of Hertfordshire Press, 1995.
The book begins with a survey of Gypsy persecution
in Europe, describing the attempts of the English central government to
control Gypsies through legislation. The author provides details on the
different strategies local governments have used to control the so-called
Gypsy menace.
“Off the Road.” Economist, no. 320 (August 24, 1991): p. 51.
This article observes that nomadism is not the
preferred lifestyle for English Travellers, who would really like to settle
there.
OKELY, Judith. “Gypsy Women: Models in Conflict,” in Shirley Ardener, ed.,
Perceiving
Women. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1975.
In this ground-breaking article, the author deals
with the stereotypical image of Romany woman in the eyes of Gorgios or
non-Gypsies and how Romany women view themselves, particularly in relation
to their belief in female pollution. Though the fine, detailed examples
used by the author to underscore this issue are drawn principally from
British examples, the conclusions drawn by the author have universal implications
and lessons.
OKELY, Judith M. The Traveller-Gypsies. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1983.
This socio-anthropological study is the product
of extensive fieldwork by the author among Travellers in England from 1970-72
and 1974-5, and argues that the Roma are an indigenous folk who became
outsiders with the collapse of feudal society, thus rejecting the Roma’s
legendary Indian origins.
O’NIONS, Helen. “The Marginalisation of Gypsies”. OSCE/CPRSI Newsletter
2, no. 4 (August 1996): pp. 3-4.
This tells of the Criminal Justice and Public
Order Act of 1994, which reduced the number of authorized Romany sites
to deter nomadism, their dominant lifestyle in England.
SAMPSON, J. The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1926.
This work explains Romany origins and migrations
in the context of linguistics.
SIBLEY, David. Outsiders in Urban Societies. Oxford: Blackwell,
1981.
This book about the Romany minority of Great
Britain examines their marginal position and the impact it has on their
social and living conditions.
SINCLAIR, P. “Casting out the Outcasts.” Geographic Magazine, 65
(March 1993): pp. 14-18.
This is a proposal to replace the 1968 Caravan
Sites Act, a law with important consequences for the life of the Travellers
in England.
WARD, C. “Fringe Benefits.” New Statesman Society, no. 5 (December
18, 1992-January 1, 1993): p. 25.
This article discusses proposals to modify or
replace the 1968 Caravan Sites Act in Great Britain.
WARD-JACKSON, C. H., and D. E. HARVEY. The English Gypsy Caravan.
Newton Abbot, 1972; 2nd ed. 1986.
This is an account of the travelling English
Roma, their social and economic status, and the attitudes of the surrounding
society towards them.
WEBB, Godfrey Edward Charles. Gypsies, the Secret People. London:
H. Jenkins, 1960.
This is a sociological account of the British
Roma, emphasizing their communal character—especially their self-sufficiency,
closing themselves off from outside invasion.
WOOD, Manfri Frederick. In the Life of a Romany Gypsy. Edited by
J. A. Brune. London and Boston: Routledge & K. Paul, 1973.
This book, by a founding member of the Gypsy
Council and a member of one of the oldest Romany families in Britain, tells
of the social structures of the English Roma, the various taboos that are
observed, and the way work and wealth is distributed.
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