All the fun of the Fair - Appleby

From the News and Star

When Caroline James arrived in Appleby to run her new pub she wasn’t prepared for the events that were about to unfold.

It was just before the annual horse fair and, unlike many of her fellow traders, she couldn’t see any reason to close the pub.

She continued to stay open during the fair – and for the four years she lived in the town.

Her experiences of those times, with the Gypsy community and her love of Cumbria were the inspiration for her debut novel Coffee, Tea, The Gypsy and Me.

Dreams of having her own hotel led her to college in Bournemouth to study catering and a four star hotel in Knightsbridge in London before moving to Appleby to run The White Hart.

She arrived in the town in the late Eighties a week before the Horse Fair.

Despite the misgivings of neighbours, she decided to keep the pub open and traded throughout the fair, while many businesses closed for the duration of the event.

“It was a baptism of fire,” she recalls. “It wasn’t a popular time in the town – it upset the way of life – but there was money to be made and it was great fun.”

Appleby Horse Fair, which attracts more than 10,000 Gypsies and Travellers, is the largest fair of its kind in Europe and dates back to at least 1750.

Caroline became fascinated by the local loathing of the occasion and the disruption it caused to townsfolk, but continued to serve the Gypsies each year.

And although there were incidents of violence, she found they were always grateful that she looked after them.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” she admits. “I was nervous. “The first year, I didn’t think to take things down in the pub and everything went.

“I remember how we had a room trashed, but the Gypsies responsible came back the next morning and paid for the damage. If there was any trouble, they would step in.”

Another problem was dealing with the meal requirements of the Travellers.

While the White Hart offered a full range of meals, the Gypsies only wanted one thing.

“I was unprepared for the first meal I did,” she admits. “I didn’t realise all they wanted was a T-bone steak and chips, I ended up cooking hundreds of steaks.”

By the Thursday of the fair, everything went quiet and she returned to the normal menu.

After leaving Appleby, Caroline moved to running a hotel in Temple Sowerby and the fair remained part of her working life because people with Romany roots and those who loved horses would stay there.

Although she now lives in Cheshire, she loves Cumbria and has fond memories of the colourful characters she met and while the book is fiction they gave her the inspiration for it.

“I really enjoyed it and have fond memories of this time,” she says. “Writing the book brought back memories, it was an exciting time.”

Coffee, Tea, The Gypsy and Me is set in the Eighties and is a tale of romance as Black Monday approaches, property prices slump and tourism crashes.

The heroine, Jo, risks everything as she pursues her dream of running a successful country house hotel.

The Gypsy in the story is an elusive character and keeps himself to himself while Hatty, who comes to work for Jo, is a typical Cumbrian girl.

“I have always wanted to write but I never thought I was good enough,” says Caroline. “A couple of years ago I thought I’d try it. I just knew I wanted to write a book about Cumbria, the characters and the horse fair as it had an influence on me. People say, write what you know.

“You have to find time to write and I’d get up really early in the morning.

“The book seemed to write itself, but the editing was hard, I kept rewriting it.”

An electronic version of the story was released in March and shot to number three in the women’s fiction category on Amazon, with 5,000 downloads over the Easter weekend.

“I wasn’t expecting anything,” says Caroline, who now runs a hospitality business and is an agent for chefs.

“I was very nervous as I was waiting to see what the reaction was. It was overwhelming.”

Caroline has now started writing her second book, The Agent, which will be released later in the year.

Coffee, Tea, The Gypsy and Me is currently available on all ebook formats and will be out in paperback in July. Visit www.carolinejamesauthor.co.uk to find out more.