Dear Friend,
This is the first time in eight years at the Press that I have been moved to
write in person to selected friends and customers on our mailing lists with
a general appeal to subscribe and thus make possible the publication of a
volume which will otherwise not see the light of day. Now Shoon the Romano
Gillie: Traditional Verse in the High and Low Speech of the Gypsies of
Britain by Tim Coughlan. I am doing this not only because of the merits of
the book in itself but because my unsuccessful search for supporting funds
has brought home to me how the book’s fate mirrors that of the Gypsies
themselves - it stands outside the various definitions and categories that
can call on institutional support and for that reason risks disappearing
without trace. After reading what follows I hope you will agree with me
that this cannot be allowed to happen.
The following writers have generously lent their names in support of this
appeal: Deirdre Beddoe and Chris Lee, Meredydd Evans and Phyllis Kinney,
Angus Fraser, Michael Holroyd, Emyr Humphreys, Daniel Huws, Eldra Jarman,
Jan Morris, Anthony Sampson, Lisa Tickner, Kyffin Williams.
The Book
The book envisaged is a substantial one - it will make some 450 pages -
which is after considerable pruning of the original typescript. What we have
here is not the product of direct field-work but a gathering together, a
sifting and an analysis of all the material available - whether previously
collected by collectors of Romani song, or preserved whole or in fragments
within literary or other texts. It is therefore a compendium of texts, many
fragmentary, presented within a narrative which consists of linguistic,
historical and cultural commentary. The book is not concerned, except in
passing, with the music of the songs.
Parts of the book fit into a Welsh context because deep Romani was last
spoken and collected here, but the scope of the book is wider. The greater
part of the material comes from England and Wales, with some material from
Scotland and Ireland. The aim, in the author’s own words, has been “to offer
as complete a picture as possible of the Welsh Romani and Romani English
song repertoire as it has emerged in print over the past one hundred and
fifty years and in so doing to seek to identify and explain its principal
characteristics and underlying mode of thought.”
The book has been read (for ourselves and for the Arts Council of Wales) by
three readers in all. The reports were favourable, indeed enthusiastic, and
all made a definite recommendation to publish. I have extracted some
passages on the attached sheet.
The Context
A central tenet of the author’s thesis is that the “low speech” of today’s
Gypsies and travellers is not a kind of thieves’ cant devised to confuse the
rest of society, as some have maintained, but a broken remnant of the Romani
language. The book, as one of our readers who is an HMI for the education
of travellers’ children pointed out, has a more than antiquarian interest.
It opens a way back into their heritage for people who might otherwise, in
the process of education, grow to hold their own forms of speech in
contempt. Teachers of travellers’ children will certainly find the book an
invaluable resource.
Nor, considering all this, could I dissociate it entirely from the desperate
reports that reach me weekly on an e-mail network from Helsinki Human Rights
Monitor groups in countries such as Greece and Slovakia of Gypsies being
harrassed and expelled from long occupied sites, their homes bulldozed,
their rights dismissed in the courts. In a very small way it seems to me
that there is an opportunity here to do something constructive.
The Funding History
There are lines of demarcation between the Arts Council of England and the
Arts Council of Wales. The Arts Council of England have sometimes in the
past supported volumes whose subject matter covers both England and Wales,
but in this case the author has been resident in Wales for many years which
disqualifies him. The Arts Council of Wales agreed that the book was of a
kind that could qualify for their support. They took readers’ reports and on
that basis decided in principle to support the book but then told us that,
with limited funds, they had to operate a scale of priority categories and
that this book was not high enough on that scale. We are extremely unhappy
with the decision which we are continuing to argue with but time moves on
and they will not hold another meeting until the autumn.
Then again, for certain kinds of publication there are University funds of
one kind or another; but the subject of the book is not a university
discipline and the author has no connection with the University of Wales.
This book will not enhance any departmental or institutional research
assessment; and at the University Press we are not permitted when making a
publishing decision to project a loss, which would be the likely
consequence of deciding to publish such a substantial volume without subsidy.
It is against this background that I am turning to the time-honoured method
of publishing by subscription. If we can find enough pre-publication
subscribers at £35 (as against a shop price of £40) to reach the level of
grant we had requested from the Arts Council of Wales, we shall go ahead and
publish. That grant is calculated within an established formula that fills
the gap between costs and projected income.
I am confident we shall reach the necesary level of subscription and move
forward to publication - probably in Autumn 1999, but if we do not, then
of course your money will be returned. Subscription details are given on
the attached sheet.
Yours sincerely,
Ned Thomas
NOW SHOON THE ROMANO GILLIE
Traditional Verse in the High and Low Speech of the Gypsies of Britain
By Tim Coughlan
SUBSCRIPTION APPLICATION
I wish to subscribe to Now Shoon the Romano Gillie. The volume will be
dispatched to me post-free on publication (Autumn 1999). The price per copy
is £35.00 (a saving of £5 off the published price). I wish my name to
appear in the list of subscribers as follows (BLOCK CAPITALS please):
¨ I enclose cheque for £........payable to ‘University of Wales Press’.
¨ Please debit my Visa/MasterCard/Delta credit/debit card account:
No: Expiry date:
Signature:
Dispatch address (BLOCK CAPITALS please):
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NOTES
1. Please return this form, with payment, to the University of Wales Press
by 4 January 1999 in order for your name to be included in the list of
subscribers.
2. Whilst every care will be taken to ensure that the subscribers’ list is
accurate,
no liability can be accepted for any errors or omissions.
3. Customers wishing to pay in foreign currency should pay by
Visa/Delta/MasterCard.
4. If paying by credit/debit card the dispatch address must be the same as
the address to which your card statement is sent.
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
6 Gwennyth Street, Cathays, Cardiff, CF2 4YD
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