Thomas Acton

The Roma have been feared and shunned for centuries – but who exactly are they?

In the absence of their own written records, they have been ‘invented’ and misrepresented in Europe ever since their arrival in the Middle Ages, says Klaus-Michael Bogdal

Gypsies kidnap a child, in an illustration from Le Petit Journal, 1902. [Getty Images]
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  • Europe and the Roma: A History of Fascination and Fear

    Klaus-Michael Bogdal, translated by Jefferson Chase

    Allen Lane, pp. 608, £40

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