Green cloth binding with black title on the spine and front board.

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A very lovely book, it takes you back to a simpler time, of friendship, nature and innocence.Illustrations by Reg Gammon and photographs by the author. Another trip through a quieter, calmer age – a light read about a world that is largely no longer with us. A nice (a much underrated trait) tale. My dad read this book to me as a child and I’m now reading it to my kids, a lovely book from yesteryear.

Pictorial dust jacket over pictorial cloth covered boards. Black and white illustrations by Reg Gammon. Black and white photographs by the author. Black and white portrait frontispiece. Binding remains firm. Please view photographs for more details.

Review: George Bramwell Evens was a radio presenter and his show was scripted to give the impression of friends walking the countryside and discussing all manner of countryside ramblings. These shows were then made into a series of books which are charmingly addictive. The tales he tells of his wanderings are fascinating to hear and I can’t wait to read more of his books. His mother was a true Romany and was born in a vardo (caravan).

The Romany Society was originally formed in 1946 and continued until 1965.  It was re-founded in 1996, with Mr Terry Waite as Patron and Mrs Romany June Watt (Romany’s daughter) as President. It was disbanded in 2023/24.

The Society was created to promote and encourage the study and appreciation of the Reverend Bramwell Evens, better known as ‘Romany of the BBC’, who was a pioneer natural history broadcaster and nature writer.

The Society ceased to function in 2024.

The Rev. George Bramwell Evens (15 February 1884 – 20 November 1943) was, under the pseudonym Romany (and sometimes The Tramp), a British radio broadcaster and writer on countryside and natural history matters – quite possibly the first to broadcast on such issues. He was also a Minister of the Methodist Church. Evens’ mother was Romani, born in a vardo (Romany wagon). His father was Salvation Army Lieutenant George Evens, a native of Plymouth. He was born at 3 Argyll Street, Anlaby Road, Hull, England and educated at Epworth College, Rhyl, as boarder, then at Queens College, Taunton. He married Eunice, the daughter of The Reverend Owen Thomas on 1 August 1911.

He is most famous for his Out with the Romany radio programmes (later Out with Romany), which commenced in 1933 on the BBC’s Children’s Hour, describing travels in his own vardo (purchased in 1921, at Brough Hill Fair, for £75), with Comma the horse, his English Cocker Spaniel Raq, and his young friends Muriel and Doris. Although the programmes were all pre-scripted and performed entirely in the studio, the impression given was of Romany and his friends going for a walk in the countryside and spontaneously discussing the plants and animals they came across. Raphael Samuel saw the programme as instrumental in making the countryside desirable for a generation of listeners. Simon Barnes has paid tribute to how his father (radio) and himself (books) were drawn to natural history by Romany: “I longed to walk through the country with the all-knowing, all-seeing Romany”. As a Methodist minister, Evens’ ministries included Goole; the Methodist Central Hall, Carlisle (1914–1926); Huddersfield (1926–1929); and the King Cross Methodist Chapel, Halifax (1929–1939), after which ill health forced him to give up the ministry. He retired to Wilmslow, where he died, leaving his wife, son Glyn and daughter, Romany June.He lived at Number 1, Parkway, Wilmslow and he died in the house following feeling unwell building a Cumbrian stone rockery in the garden.

His ashes were scattered, at his request, at Old Parks Farm, Glassonby, Cumbria, which he had enjoyed visiting over a 22-year period: in 2001, a memorial to him was erected there by The Romany Society. The vardo was donated, unconditionally, by his widow, to the forerunners of Cheshire East Borough Council (CEBC). For many years it was displayed by CEBC, outdoors, in Wilmslow. In late 2012, having deteriorated badly, it was restored and moved to Bradford Industrial Museum, to be displayed indoors. The BBC radio programmes were all broadcast live, and only one recording survives – dated October 1943, just a month before his death. It was released on CD in 2006.

Original Romany Books

(Credited to G. Bramwell Evens)

• A Romany in the Fields (Epworth Press, 1929)

• A Romany and Raq (Epworth Press, 1930)

• A Romany in the Country (Epworth Press, 1932)

• A Romany on the Trail (Epworth Press, 1934; illustrations by Reg Gammon)

• Out with Romany (University of London Press (UoL), 1937; illustrations by Gammon and photographs by Romany)

• Out with Romany Again (UoL, 1938; line drawings by Gammon and photographs by Romany)

• Out with Romany Once More (UoL, 1940; illustrations by Gammon)

• Out with Romany by the Sea (UoL, 1941; illustrations by Gammon and photographs by Romany)

• Out with Romany by Meadow and Stream (UoL, 1942; illustrations by Gammon)

• Out With Romany by Moor and Dale (UoL, 1944; illustrations by Gammon)

• Walks with Romany (E.J. Arnold & Son, undated)