Along the Enchanted Way

A beautifully written account of an Englishman who ventures to rural Romania and ends up staying after he falls for a gypsy girl.

The author captures a seemingly idyllic, pastoral way of life and describes it with such grace that I was left longing to join him swinging a scythe in the hay meadows or sitting by a crackling wood stove after a day of splitting logs.

Although the book covers a period of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, the world Blacker documents could be from a century ago. It’s a moving, wistful, sometimes amusing, and eventually poignant account… show more.

A unique book. Read this and you'll find yourself in a disappearing world. Northern Romania eschewed the modern conveniences and less delicate touches of capitalism for most of the twentieth century. Blacker shares a life wholly dictated by the rhythms of nature. This is a world where the locals recognise someone visiting from another village at a distance, not by their face or their clothes, but by the horse they are riding.

Another book that inspired my own travels – and that of many others through my travel company, Wild Frontiers – this book tells the story of the author’s 12 years in Romania after the fall of the communist regime. Taking one back to a bucolic world of horse-drawn carts, farmers scything hay, fairy tale castles, wooden churches, and medieval villages, it is romantic travel writing at its best; the fact that William actually marries a young gypsy woman adds to the soul of this quixotic tale. I loved it so much (with Williams's help) I set up a trip to… show more.

I fell in love with this book as much as I fell in love with Romania. I adored the honest and poetic way the author captured the country’s landscapes and ethnically diverse peoples at a time of great change in its history. 

Blacker travelled from England to Romania just after the fall of communism. He settled and lived among peasants in a rural world, frozen in time, and clashes with social norms when he falls for a gypsy girl. 

If you want to understand Romania, this memoir will take you a long way along the road. If you want to… show more.