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Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: The Stopping Places

Damian Le Bas

Jill Waters

Book of the Week: The Stopping Places: Episode 5

The Stopping Places

Episode 5

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, The Stopping Places, Episode 5

There's tension during the festivities at the annual Appleby Horse Fair.

Appleby Horse Fair is a high point in the Romani calendar. Damian Le Bas searches for a suitable stopping place for his newly refurbished van.

Damian Le Bas combines a family memoir with broader historical context as he tells a story of the British traveller community, a people who have been on the margins since their presence and language was first noted down in the mid-16th century, in a pub in Sussex.

Damian inhabits an awkward middle ground between the non-gypsy world and his own heritage. He grew up in West Sussex in a house built by his
grandfather on land the family owned, surrounded by a field that was half car-breaking business, half farmyard. Scattered bits of engines lay alongside bales of hay, brand new trucks were surrounded by geese and terriers. But twice a week they drove an hour each way to their family pitch in the market square of Petersfield where they sold flowers.

Along the way, his elders would nod towards lay-bys and verges, naming them as they passed. These were the 'atchin tans' or stopping places. His great grandmother, Nan, explained to him that they were diverse places where she and her family used to live in the days of wagons and bender tents. Sometimes they would stop for a few days, other times for a few years.

Damian's parents both had faith in education and, when they saw that he was bright, he applied for for a scholarship at the nearby boarding school, leading to ten grade A O-Levels, A Levels and theology at Oxford. 

Damian was now firmly an outsider in both worlds. But having plundered the Bodleian Library for histories of gypsies, he felt the need to get out into the world and discover the topography of his ancestors. So he got himself a van and set out to visit the stopping places - from Devon to Northumbria via London and Wales. As we
follow his journey, we also learn about the history of antagonism that has followed gypsies and the movement to reclaim their identity with pride.

Written and read by Damian Le Bas
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters

A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Damian Le Bas sets out on a journey to discover his traveller family's past.

Damian Le Bas combines a family memoir with broader historical context as he tells a story of the British traveller community.

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