The Diddakoi (aka Gypsy Girl)
Rumer Godden
1972, The Viking Press

Kezia - Kizzy - Lovell is a half-gypsy orphan being raised by her grandmother in a horse-drawn wagon. But Gran is old and they've stopped travelling, camping permanently in an orchard owned by the reclusive Admiral Cunningham Twiss. When Gran dies and Kizzy's remaining relatives plan to sell her old horse, Joe, to the knacker, she appeals to the Admiral for help. With Joe taken care of, however, Kizzy is in need of a home. She reluctantly agrees to go live with Miss Brooke, but battles between them, and between Kizzy and her suspicious schoolmates, throw her future into question.

Kizzy did not have toys, except an old skipping rope that Gran had bought with some jumbler - travellers are forever buying and selling things. Kizzy did not need toys when she had Joe. She combed him with an old curry comb and brushed his mane and tail; she would sit beside him in the grass, giving him buttercups, of which he was fond; if she lay down beside him he would sometimes push her with his nose; the breath from his nostrils was warm and now and again he would gently lick her face. A horse's lick is clean to a traveller.

Rumer Godden had a unique writing style, one where sentences wend onward until you'd think it was impossible for them to sustain their own weight. But they do. Her simultaneously romantic and practical view of childhood is also unique; her children are both brutal and pragmatic, in a way I do not find completely believable or appealing, but which is a refreshing change from the "What's wrong with poor little Devon that he stuck a pencil through his classmate's head?" approach.

Current Re-Issue
The Diddakoi was re-issued in 2008 by Macmillan, which has also re-issued several other Godden books for children.
http://www.panmacmillan.com/titles/displayPage.asp?PageTitle=Individual%20Title&BookID=404453

Adaptations
The Diddakoi was made into a TV-movie called Kizzi for the BBC.

About The Author
Raised in India, Godden spent much of her life living outside England. The autobiographical Two Under The Indian Sun is about her childhood, while Kingfisher Catch Fire is a novel which draws heavily on her experiences as a young woman living in the Himalayas. She also wrote the novels In This House Of Brede, Black Narcissus, The Battle of the Villa Fiorita and The River. Black Narcissus and The River were both made into films, as were several other works.

Other Children's Books by Godden
Godden wrote several books about dolls and doll houses.
The Doll's House
Four Dolls
The Fairy Doll
The Story of Holly and Ivy
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower
Little Plum

Home is a Sailor
Operation Sippacik
The Mousewife
Impunity Jane
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle
Mr McFadden's Hallowe'en
Mouse House
The Rocking Horse Secret
The Kindle of Kittens
Candy Floss
The Dragon Og
St Jerome and the Lion
The Valiant Chatti-Maker
Fu-Dog
The Little Chair
Listen to the Nightingale
The Kitchen Madonna

Related Websites
Rumer Godden Literary Trust
IMDB page for Kizzy