I Wanted To Be The For Ever Traveller

Author Jess Smith talks to Yvonne McKenzie about her life on the road.

- Jess Smith

STORYTELLER and author Jess Smith uncovers the world of travellers in her writings, having lived life on the move, living in a bus which served as a home for most of her childhood.

Her words go a long way to debunking people’s conceptions of travellers, and she now shares her stories by visiting a wide variety of groups, as well as schools, enthralling children with her tales and adventures.

Her captivating writing is perhaps surprising given – as Jess admits – her less regimented schooling, and I wondered how this softly spoken, talented author had been inspired to put pen to paper.

“For as long as I can remember, I always loved writing,” Jess says. “I used to write stories very similar to Harry Potter, but my main character was a wee lassie which I based around myself.

“I enjoyed my life as a traveller. I enjoyed my upbringing. I loved it and felt privileged.

“But life as a traveller wasn’t always easy and I knew that my father had written a manuscript, but he died without anything being done with it. When I visited him in hospital in Kirkcaldy and I saw him in the last moments of his life, I whispered in my head, ‘I’ll write the book for you, Daddy’.

“We say a lot of things when we are highly charged with emotion, being one of eight lassies and not having brothers, my father was the only man in our lives. But I knew then that I’d have to start telling people about our life.

“My mother told me to only write nice things, saying, ‘Folk have enough hardships in their lives. Make them smile’.’

But through the humour in her autobiography “Jessie’s Journey”, Jess also gives a voice to the struggles faced by travellers.