New Author Heather Cooper Celebrates Book Launch at New Forest Heritage Centre

On 11th April 2026, Living in a Kenner was launched at the New Forest Heritage Centre, as spring settled gently across the New Forest.

Horses and foals moved quietly through open spaces, while bright yellow gorse lit up the landscape, as if the land itself was waking after winter.

I travelled there for the launch of Heather Cooper’s new book, and there was something deeply special about seeing it come to life. I’ve known Heather for a while and have heard her lived experiences and family stories firsthand. To now see those same stories gathered, shaped, and held in print felt like something else entirely, memory made solid.

The book has been carefully edited and published by Jenny Knowles of Little Knoll Press, and Heather’s voice carries warmth on every page. It feels rooted in family, in place, and in lived experience that doesn’t need embellishing, because it already holds its own truth.

Inside its pages, you’ll find everything, laughter and sorrow, humour and heartache, alongside beautiful poetry written by Heather herself. There are photographs too, drawn from her own family archive, each one a small doorway into memory. Threaded through it all is history, ancestry, and the quiet weight of lives lived fully.

What made the day even more meaningful was the gathering of people who came to support her, friends, family, and strangers, all sharing in the experience, listening as Heather read poems from her book.

There was a real warmth to the crowd, a sense of movement and togetherness as people shared stories, caught up, and connected throughout the event.

It was also wonderful to see familiar faces in attendance. Betty Billington and Katie Light came to support from Kushti Bok. John from Romany Heritage, a great supporter of Romany and Traveller communities, was also there, along with many others, including equestrian artist Alan Langford, amongst a sea of other well known New Forest faces.

It was also powerful to reflect on why work like this matters. For so long, stories about the Romany community have been told from the outside looking in. But here was something different, authentic voices speaking for themselves, sharing lived experience of the New Forest and beyond. That shift matters, it’s so important.

With Romany women writers in the room coming out to support Heather, it feels, finally, that our stories are being told in our own words. Women supporting women.

And that’s what events like this do best. They bring people together, community and non community side by side, in solidarity. No distance, no divide. Real engagement doesn’t happen in theory, it happens in moments like these, where people simply sit, listen, and connect.

Heather is, at her core, a natural storyteller, and that truth runs through every page of her book. Watching her surrounded by support, warmth, and pride was deeply moving.

Living in a Kenner may be a small book, but it carries something much bigger, heart, history, and heritage woven together.

To purchase the book, please visit:
https://littleknollpress.com/shop/books-for-sale/biography-and-memoir/living-in-a-kenner-my-new-forest-romani-gypsy-family/

Thank you to the New Forest Heritage Centre for hosting the event.

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Contact and Links

To contact Kushti Bok, visit:
https://www.kushtibokdorset.co.uk/

Romany Heritage can be found on Facebook and Instagram:
@Romany Heritage
 

Words, photos and video (c) Dee Cooper for the Travellers Times