Download or read book A False Dawn written by Elena Lacková and published by Univ of Hertfordshire Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ilona Lakova's darked skinned illiterate Gypsy father fell in love with her pale skinned Polish mother whilst a prisoner in Russia during the First World War. They returned to his mothers house in a Gypsy settlement on the edge of the village of Saris in Slovakia where their family of nine grew up, despised and mocked by the peasants on whom they depended for work. Ilona describes in simple unaffected language what it was like to be part of a tight knit community bound together by language, customs, music and a love of family, the spirit of Romipen.