A gloriously romantic story of love, loss and a flight to freedom.

Polly Anna could not remember her father, and after her mother died, in poverty,when Polly Anna was just three, the workhouse was the only place for her. Helped by Jonty, a young misfit who became her best friend, she ran away with the fairground folk and became a horserider and acrobat - travelling to Bartholemew Fair, Nottingham Goose Fair and Hull Fair. Her friends became the circus people and the gypsies, and her home the caravans and tents of the travellers.

Meanwhile, in a great house in the Yorkshire Wolds, old Mrs. Winthrop had never given up hope of finding her daughter who eloped with a handsome Romany and was never seen again. Her young neighbour, Richard Crossley set out to find the missing daughter, and discovered the colourful world of the fairs and the gypsies. He also discovered Polly Anna - once the waif from the workhouse, and now a fully-fledged Romani Chi - the Romany girl.

Extract from THE ROMANY GIRL:
As October, with its fine mists and smells of smoky fires drew on, Jonty dashed up the steps of the hayloft one evening in search of Polly Anna and found her sitting morosely with her chin in her hand, staring out of the open door into the dimly lit yard below. He put his head on one side and lifted his eyebrows to enquire what was the matter.
'Something,' she piped in her childish treble. 'I don't know.' She put her head in the air and sniffed. 'There's a smell but I don't know what it means.' Something in the air was stirring memories which had been hidden away for the last year and were now evoking a sadness within her.
Jonty misunderstood her mood; he beckoned eagerly for her to join him and led her down to the gate, which was now locked for the night. She couldn't reach the spyhole so he fetched a box for her to stand on and standing on tiptoe, she peered out into the street and drew a gasping breath at the procession going by. A procession of carts and trailers, animals and people. A cart trundled past which held a cage with live monkeys in it, and following that came a string of white horses, their manes nodding as if in time to the tune which came from a penny-whistle man who walked behind them. She watched as a group of people, as small as Jonty, though bigger than her, skipped and tumbled and banged tambourines and laughed and joked with each other, whilst a safe distance behind them came a chained shaggy brown bear, swinging its great head from side to side as if in greeting to the crowds who were watching from the footpath.
'Wait! Wait!' she cried. 'Wait for me,' and she turned to Jonty, a question on her lips, but he forestalled her. 'Fair,' he said, sniffing the air. 'Hull Fair!'
She nodded, then burst into tears. 'Jonty,' she wept, 'when can we leave this place?'