Jessie's Journey: Autobiography of a Traveller Girl (Mercat Press)

by JessSmith (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.31

  Jessie's Journey is an unforgettable account of a way of life that has all but vanished. It is the story of Jessie, her seven sisters and their unconventional childhood roaming the country in an old blue Bedford bus. In this moving, honest and heart-warming memoir, Jess describes her life among an extraordinary people and their never-ending struggle to survive as free nomads. Jessie's parents lacked material wealth, but they clung to 'the richness that comes from freedom, a traveller's freedom.' Living as they did on the edge of respectable society, prejudice was never far away, but their world was brimming with laughter, love and adventure. Earning their living hay-stacking, beach-combing, ragging, midden-raking, berry-picking, fortune-telling and hawking, Jessie and her family travelled the length and breadth of Scotland and beyond. Reflecting on the friendships, feuds, trials and tribulations of her boisterous family, Jess recalls a magical childhood, surrounded by the sea spray, birch woods and wild places of a Scotland few of us will ever know.

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.45

  From the ages of 5 to 15, Jess Smith lived with her parents, sisters and a mongrel dog in an old, blue Bedford bus. They travelled the length and breadth of Scotland, and much of England too, stopping here and there until they were moved on by the local authorities or driven by their own instinctive need to travel. By campfires, under the unchanging stars they brewed up tea, telling stories and singing songs late into the night. Jessie's Journey describes what it was like to be one of the last of the traditional travelling folk. It is not an idyllic tale, but despite the threat of bigoted abuse and scattered schooling, humour and laughter run throughout a childhood teeming with unforgettable characters and incidents.