title: A False Dawn: Volume 16: My Life as a Gypsy Woman in Slovakia (Interface Collection)
author: Ilona Lackova
description: Text: English (translation)<br /> Original Language: Czech
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00184.jpeg)
  
  ![](Images/image00182.jpeg)
  
  This book contains views and language on nationality, sexual politics,
  ethnicity, and society which are a product of the time in which the book is
  set. The publisher does not endorse or support these views. They have been
  retained in order to preserve the integrity of the text.
  
   **Chapter One**
  
  Almost crushed by the crowds in the swelteringly hot stands, amid the noise
  and rapturous applause, Celia turned to her companion and hugged his arm. She
  knew that solemnity should be coupled with the excitement of the event she was
  witnessing but, outspoken as ever, she couldn’t resist whispering in his ear.
  
  ‘What a funny little man he is,’ she said with a giggle.
  
  Franz Vogl glanced round, shushing her at once. Besotted as he was with Celia,
  he couldn’t let the slight to his hero pass. Handsome, fair-haired and typical
  of his race, Franz’s nature was as passionate as that of the Cornish girl he
  adored, but his national pride in the F