If you’d like to catch the first episode of series 3 of Atching Tan, then BBC Radio Suffolk at 12:30 on Monday 4 October is where you need to be! Need a quick recap on what happened in series 2? The Atching Tan website can help you out. Enjoy!

Milton Country Park, just outside of Cambridge, is playing host to a weekend of traditional Gypsy and Country crafts on 23 and 24 October. It’s following on from the success of My Big Fat Gypsy Festival held there earlier this year, but this time around will be focusing on the rural community and their collection of skills.

After what seems to have been months of wrangling with the entertainment section of the education pack, I’ve had a significant breakthrough. It’s such a relief. I was, quite literally, staring at a blank screen for weeks, unsure how to address the dense and diverse world of entertainment in the Gypsy/Romany/Traveller community. And then the thunderbolt of inspiration struck! Read the rest of this entry »

Hello one and all. I’m sorry it’s been a while. Recently, my life has been devoted to preparing the interviews that will be included as part of the education pack, which has been laborious and extremely time-consuming. As a consequence, it means that I don’t have very much of any great excitement to report. Thankfully, other things have been happening in the company, so I have something to tell you. Read the rest of this entry »

There has been massive unrest—including riots and street battles—in France over the past week, following the shooting of a young French Romany by a Gendarme. As a consequence, the French government is looking to implement extensive measures aimed at controlling itinerant peoples. The left is claiming that Sarkozy’s government is stigmatising minority groups and pandering to the far right, whilst the right is saying that they need to protect France from loss of public order. We’re not permitted to pass political judgement here at RTC (but doubtless you know what we’re thinking), so instead I’ll point you in the direction of some news reports. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve spent this week listening to another batch of recordings from the reminiscence strand of the project, and working out how best they can be integrated into the education pack. Although this is a fascinating part of the education pack process, it is also incredibly demanding. I find that I listen to a recording an average of three times: I don’t want to miss anything, and I need to be sure that when I assign something to a particular element of the project, it’s the appropriate place for it. By the end of the day, my brain is swirling!

Whilst my home life has been exciting because I’ve moved house, my work life has been fairly normal and I’ve been working on the education pack. If I’m honest, I’m rather relieved about that because I don’t think I could deal with too much going on at once! This month, the excitement has all been in Sinead’s camp, where she’s managed to combine home and work in great bundle.

The workshops that we offer at RTC are available year-round, but, unsurprisingly, there is an increased interest during June, which is Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. The team has ventured north, south, and east to deliver O Romani Tober (The Romany Way) to audiences of children and young people in both schools and young offenders’ institutions. I dropped in and joined them for a performance and workshop session at Notre Dame school in Southwark last Friday.

June is Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. Across the country there are hundreds of events taking place to celebrate the life, culture, and history of people from travelling backgrounds in attempt to help to break down the barriers of mistrust and misunderstanding that exist between the Travelling and the settled communities.

It’s all go at RTC at the moment! The first drafts of season three of the radio series have just been submitted, we’ve amassed our target number of reminiscence recordings, and we’ve selected a designer for the education pack. I see a great deal of editing, across various media, in our future.