The Stopping Places

A Journey Through Gypsy Britain

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The Stopping Places

By: Damian Le Bas

Narrated by: Damian Le Bas

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Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Stopping Places, written and read by Damian Le Bas.

*BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*

'I needed to get to the stopping places, so I needed to get on the road. It was the road where I might at last find out where I belonged.'

Damian Le Bas grew up surrounded by Gypsy history. His great-grandmother would tell him stories of her childhood in the ancient Romani language; the places her family stopped and worked, the ways they lived, the superstitions and lores of their people. But his own experience of life on the road was limited to Ford Transit journeys from West Sussex to Hampshire to sell flowers.

In a bid to better understand his Gypsy heritage, the history of the Britain's Romanies and the rhythms of their life today, Damian sets out on a journey to discover the atchin tans, or stopping places – the old encampment sites known only to Travellers. Through winter frosts and summer dawns, from horse fairs to Gypsy churches, neon-lit lay-bys to fern-covered banks, Damian lives on the road, somewhere between the romanticised Gypsies of old, and their much-maligned descendants of today.

In this powerful and soulful debut, Damian le Bas brings the places, characters and stories of his to bold and vigorous life.

Damian Le BasDamian Le BasVintage Digital

Cultural & Regional

Travel Writing & Commentary

Inspiring

Thought-Provoking

Cultural & Regional Travel Writing & Commentary Inspiring Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

Tender and intensely lyrical ... the prose is pure delight. The author breathes life into everything he sees ... To read The Stopping Places is to better understand the curious history of the Roma and how they have survived into 21st-century Britain (Jackie Annesley)

A beautiful writer who seems born to tell this fascinating story. It's brilliantly researched, avoiding stereotype and explaining misconceptions, while showing what is vital and special about modern traveller culture (Amy Liptrot)

A fine prose style, vividly conjuring the smell of a hop pillow, the whinnying of a horse fair and the ‘wet-look hairstyles’ of the men, as well as the dead cold of a wagon in winter... An element of memoir clings to this excellent account of folk most of us don’t understand... The end of the book hints at redemption, as Le Bas comes to terms with the conflicts of his dual world. But he is too good a writer to make a meal of it (Sara Wheeler)

An insight into the hidden world and culture of travelling people, written with delicacy and affection (Ken Loach)

Beautifully written and deeply affecting… While this is a beautiful, important book about Gypsy culture, it’s also a moving exploration of what it means to belong (Clover Stroud)

An illuminating journey into a British culture and landscape about which most of us know nothing. This is a beautiful, important and revelatory book from a graceful new voice (Patrick Barkham)

Le Bas is a thoughtful writer, observant of nature and with a lovely turn of phrase... by turn lyrical, edgy and wistful... the book is rich with lore and history (Kathleen Jamie)

I loved Damian Le Bas’s beautiful, questioning memoir, at once an introduction into a hidden world and a profound meditation on belonging and difference (Olivia Laing)

He conjures up soaring, poetic descriptions of his surroundings... But The Stopping Places is more than a travelogue. It is also a colourful dive into gypsy culture, history and language... The Stopping Places is an enjoyable and enlightening account of an overlooked part of British society

A delicate description of a life split between two identities... Le Bas has a cinematic writing style that shifts between images, memory and history. He deftly traces the origins of his people, the language and persecutions as well as modern British hypocrisies... This is a thoroughly enjoyable read that manages a near-perfect balance of the personal and political (Morgan Meaker)

Most relevant

This is a charming, wistful account of the life past & present of Roma travellers in Britain, written by a native Roma man, Damian Le Bas. The reader learns through his eyes the pains and joys of being a Roma in the modern world. And he makes no bones about the Roma being his people and how they will always be a people unto themselves. Though you wouldn't know it from his diction which sounds as English as the rest of us. Besides having a poet's skill for painting the scenes he passes through Le Bas brings much good humour and a genuine flair for philosophy to his writing.