Here is a sample of the contents page and a small taste of some of the many stories from "Torn Away Forever".

"The Introduction":

About one thousand years ago, a race of people who originally came from the northern part of India, migrated across Asia to the Middle East and eventually reached Europe sometime in the fourteenth century, where Europeans misnamed them Egyptians, which was soon shortened to Gypsies.

Sadly, almost from the time they arrived in Europe, the Gypsies were met hostility. They endured persecution, firstly from the church, which saw heresy in their fortune-telling and secondly, from the state, which interpreted their nomadism as anti-social behaviour. Their animals were shot, their property vandalised and their women sterilised. Also, their babies and children were forcibly removed from them and given to non-Gypsy families to raise. My great-grandfather, August was one of these children.

This historical novel revolves around August, a full-blooded Gypsy, who was torn away from his real parents and his daughter, Elsa. It tells of the suffering and hardships they and their families were put through during two world wars and the periods in between, as well as the racism they had to contend with.

"The Gypsy Children":

There were two small fires burning and on one was a big pot, where the women kept adding vegetables and spices into while a couple of men tendered a small suckling pig on the other fire. One of them slowly turned it while the other sat beside him, talking, every so often, spitting his chewing tobacco into the flames. Elsa smelt the cooking and it made her mouth water. Some small children splashed about happily in a large puddle that an earlier shower of rain had left and close by were a few older ones, playing a game where they jumped over logs placed side by side, as fast as they could without falling over them. Nearby, two girls went round in a circle with an egg held between their foreheads, trying hard not to drop it, which required a lot of skill. Over in the corner of the field, two goats, which were tethered to a tree, were being milked by a couple of young girls. That looks easy, Elsa thought. She moved a few steps out from behind the tree where she'd been hiding to get a better view. It was then that one of the girls spotted Elsa and waved her over. Elsa hesitated for a moment, then ambled across to them.

"Hello," she said shyly. "I'm Elsa."

The two girls giggled at one another.

"I'm Maria," one said, as she deftly squeezed the goat's teat, "and that's Sarah."

Sarah stopped milking, smiled at Elsa, then carried on with her chore. The two pretty girls looked about ten or eleven, had long, thick black hair and large, greyish brown eyes. Both of them wore dresses that were covered in flecks of mud and neither had any shoes on. After a few moments, Maria hopped up and glanced at Elsa.

"Want to try it?" she asked.

"Sure," replied Elsa with a shrug of her shoulders.

"The Wild Boar and the Boring Bull":

Suddenly, he heard a loud snort and out of the bushes charged a great wild boar, straight towards him. August yelled, spun round and ran as fast as he could, with the boar chasing at his heels. Just as the animal lunged at him with it's tusks, August jumped up, grabbed onto a low branch of a tree and hoisted himself up. The boar crashed into the trunk, then squealed in pain and anger. It butted the tree a couple of times, but August held on tight. He looked into it's eyes and the boar looked straight back, steam coming from its nostrils as it snorted in frustration at him. What a great catch that boar would make, he thought. August waited for a short while to see what the animal might do. It didn't move away from the tree but stood there staring at him, so August carefully pulled a hunting net from his leather pouch and balanced himself in the fork of the tree, waiting silently for the right moment to throw it over the boar...

"Willy's Ghost":

The mournful cry made her hair stand up on her body, because it was so full of sadness and sorrow. She sat up in bed, trying to make out where the crying was coming from. At first, it seemed to come from the hall, then it got louder until she believed it was coming from somewhere in her bedroom. The crying continued until the early hours of the morning, then it faded away. During the following week, the same happening occurred every night and the girls also heard the crying. One particular night after the crying ceased, as Elsa lay awake in her bed, she felt a draft blow through her bedroom, then the bedroom door opened slightly, before slamming shut, causing her to jump in fright. She sat up and looked in shock to see an apparition of her dead husband standing at the end of her bed. I'm not dreaming, she thought to herself. I'm wide awake, and can clearly see everything in the room. He stood there silently, looking at Elsa with the saddest blue eyes, his blond hair shimmering, his face so white, almost translucent. She just stared back at the him, completely overwhelmed with emotion. After a minute or so, he faded away and vanished. Elsa noticed a bright light shining through under the door, so she quickly put her dressing gown on and went into the hallway, but the light had disappeared, leaving the hall in darkness. She looked in on the children and found they were all fast asleep. There was no window open either which could allow a breeze to come in. Elsa stood in the hallway, utterly bewildered. It seemed so real, she thought...

"A Gypsy named Ferry":

On the ground floor of Elsa's apartment block, lived a woman known simply, as Ferry. She was a full-blooded Gypsy who still used traditional Gypsy medicines, and practised fortune-telling with the crystal ball, tarot cards and tea leaves. Ferry, who was a tall, heavily built women with piercing dark grey eyes and a thick head of long plaited grey hair, always wore an old dark red scarf around her head and large round earings which dangled from drooping ear lobes. Her fingers were covered in silver rings of all shapes and sizes and she dressed in, what seemed like layers of petticoats, under heavy old worn out dresses. Ferry was a bit of a loner, who idled away the hours, standing at the front door of the apartment block, smoking a cigar, for the most part ignoring the people as they came and went. Every now and then, she'd shout out strange things, especially to children, who sometimes annoyed her with their cheeky remarks. The neighbours believed Ferry was mouthing words to put a spell on the kids, so they'd stay away from her. Ferry was once part of an original travelling Gypsy side-show carnival that moved from town to town in wagons, setting up their tents and stalls in each one they visited. She was the fortune-teller, not one of the types that dressed up just to look mysterious, but a real Gypsy one, taught in the old ways which had been handed down from generation to generation...