Charles Smith

I am a Romani Gypsy born in Rochford Essex in 1956 and have lived in Essex all my life. During the mid 1970’s I became involved in Gypsy politics, and joined the then National Gypsy Education Council (later to become The Gypsy Council for Education, Culture, Welfare and Civil Rights (GCECWCR)). Over the subsequent years I have been a committee member, Vice President, Vice Chair and have had the honour of being elected Chair of The Gypsy Council every year since 1990. In addition to Gypsy politics, I am also involved in local politics and have been a councillor in Castle Point since May 1996 and after a year as Deputy Mayor I am currently the Mayor of the Borough.

I began writing in the early 1980’s and first had my work published in The Journal of Traveller Education produced by the National Gypsy Education Council, which included a short story about Stow Fair and several poems. In 1986, several of my poems were included in an anthology of verse, "Gavvered All Around", the title being one of my poems. Since then I have had two poetry books published, "Spirit of the Flame" in 1990 and "Not all Wagons and Lanes" in 1995. I received an award for my poetry from the Romani Arts Festival in 1996 held in Italy. I am currently working on a further book of poems and a novel.

Although most of my work is about, and inspired by Gypsy life and culture, I also write about local history.