The Moon in my Pocket

  
You are looking at one of the most prolific English writers of the twentieth century. Rupert Croft-Cooke (1903-79) may be a forgotten name, but his 125 books - encompassing fiction, poetry, plays, biography and non-fiction - stand testament to his remarkable life.

Born in Edenbridge, Kent, to Lucy and Hubert Bruce Cooke, Rupert was educated at Tonbridge School and Wellington College, and worked variously as a writer, journalist and reviewer, an antiquarian bookseller, a teacher and a radio broadcaster. In defiance of his middle-class upbringing and his father's narrowminded views, he spent many years abroad - in Paris, Buenos Aires, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and elsewhere - living cheaply and absorbing new cultures. His autobiographical travel series, The Sensual World, brims with period detail, and whilst focussing on people and places, nevertheless reveals his honesty, optimism and social consciousness.

On my bookshelves I have a copy of Rupert's 1938 work (signed and from Foyles, no less), How to get More out of Life; a guide to maintaining individuality, surviving and even thriving in modern times. Wear a cloak, keep a pet badger, sing on the train, he advises. List all the things you want to do but think you shouldn't, and set about doing them.

Rupert practiced as he preached: in the winter of 1939, he bought a gypsy caravan (vardo) and a horse, and took to the road with a Romani companion, Ted Scamp. From Ted and many others, he learnt about Romani culture, customs, language and crafts. Despite the outbreak of war, these were blissful days.

I came to the gypsies by my own way... I lived with them because I liked it... Among the gypsies I was no lavengro, no word-man. I was too happy.

Rupert Croft-Cooke, The Moon in my Pocket: Life with the Romanies (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co, 1948), p. 1.

To learn from books was not enough; indeed, Rupert did not discover the 'gypsiologists' - the anthropologists, historians, linguists and other successors of George Borrow, who came together under the Gypsy Lore Society - until after his own travels began.

In 1948, he recounted his experiences in The Moon in my Pocket: Life with the Romanies. (You can see pictures of this book in my first post). Ending with a powerful 'vindication' of the gypsies, his own photographs and a list of commonly-used Romani words, it educated and inspired readers. In his follow-up book of 1955, A Few Gypsies, Rupert recalls the letters he received from fans ready to take to the road themselves. But increasingly, such a way of life was no longer possible.

Impossible... to see the gypsies pass with their paint and brasswork catching the sun... without a spasm of envy. For their appointment tonight is with the rising moon, their engagement tomorrow is to meet another day.

Croft-Cooke, The Moon in my Pocket (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co, 1948), p. 181.

I am more than grateful to Rupert Croft-Cooke. He has taught me facts I should already have known, provided wonderful insights into gypsy life and described characters so vividly that I feel I have known them. He has opened a rare window, and encouraged me to look for others.