A Field Full of Butterflies, Rosemary Penfold
A Field Full of Butterflies, Rosemary Penfold
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A Field Full of Butterflies
Memories of a Romany Childhood

Author: Rosemary Penfold

Narrator: Anna Bentinck

Unabridged: 8 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Orion

Published: 04/14/2011

Synopsis

Rosemary Penfold was born in 1938 in a traditional Gypsy wagon, and grew up in the fields of the English countryside. In this beautiful and evocative memoir, she recounts her life within a loving extended family and small but close-knit community.

From early memories of her father bringing home oranges during the war, to the simple beauty of a field full of butterflies on a hot summer's day, Rosemary's stunningly elegant narrative captures the love and losses, hopes and struggles, traditions and prejudices that bound her to her family and helped her adapt to a fast-changing world.

Rosemary's story is a moving testament to a forgotten world and a rapidly disappearing way of life.

Read by Anna Bentinck

(p) 2011 Orion Publishing Group

About Rosemary Penfold

Rosemary Penfold lives with her husband of 54 years not far from where she grew up, in the heart of Somerset. She has 4 children, 11 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. She is still close to her extended Romany family who meet regularly for family gatherings. Although 'settled', her Romany roots mean she is still a gypsy at heart.

About Anna Bentinck

Anna Bentinck was trained at Arts Educational College and has worked extensively for BBC radio. Animation voices include the series 64 Zoo Lane. Film credits include The Trojan Women, Alice in Wonderland and To The Devil a Daughter. Her many audio books range from Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, The Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit, One Day by David Nicholls , Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel, The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, Sanditon and The Watsons by Jane Austen to The Bible.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Natalie on October 14, 2017

A biographical account of a Gypsy/Romany family growing up during and after WW2. This reads as if written by a child. It is definitely in need of a good edit as there was a lot of repetition, even whole sentences were repeated within a few paragraphs of each other! A lot of the detail also seemed ju......more

Goodreads review by Megan on January 11, 2018

Nostalgic memoir of growing up as a gypsy that was enjoyable in parts but didn't hold my interest the whole way through......more

Goodreads review by Lynne on July 02, 2011

I never really connected with any of the characters and felt it over-romanticized their lives. I gave it three stars because I did like the scenes where they went to school and were first exposed to mainstream culture. It's worth a library read, but probably not worth purchasing. I preferred the nov......more

Goodreads review by Sinead Anne on February 08, 2019

A really lovely story about Romany gypsies and the prejudices they have had to overcome through out their lives.......more

Goodreads review by Plum-crazy on January 02, 2019

I'm not a fan of memoirs & biographies but the thought of a Romany childhood intrigued me as there's something a touch romantic about a gypsy caravan meandering down country lanes - though thats a very idealised notion I know - but there's none of that here! While it's a nostalgic tale of a lost wor......more

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