The Diddakoi

The Diddakoi is a 1972 children's novel by Rumer Godden. Set in England, it features an orphan traveller or Romani girl,^[1] seven-year-old Kizzy Lovell, who faces persecution, grief, and loss^[3] in a hostile, close-knit, village community. The title is an alternative spelling of "didicoy", the Angloromani term for a person of mixed ancestry.

The Diddakoi

First edition
Author	Rumer Godden
Illustrator	Creina Glegg[1]
Genre	Children's novel Domestic fiction[2]
Publisher	Macmillan (UK) Viking (US)
Publication date	1972
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	140
ISBN	0-333-13848-1
LC Class	PZ7.G54 Di[1] PZ3.G5422 Di3[2]

The Diddakoi won the 1972 Whitbread Award in the Children's Book category, honouring the year's best English-language work by a writer based in Britain or Ireland.^[4] It was dramatised as a television serial, Kizzy (1976), which was produced by Dorothea Brooking for the BBC, with Vanessa Furst as Kizzy. Decades later it was adapted as a BBC radio drama of the same name, with Nisa Cole in the lead role.^[5]

HarperCollins republished the novel in 2002 under the title Gypsy Girl.^[6]

References

1. "The diddakoi" (Macmillan, 1972). Library of Congress Online Catalog. Library of Congress. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
2. "The diddakoi" (Viking Press, 1972). LC Catalog. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
3. "The diddakoi" (Macmillan, 1972). WorldCat. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
     Kizzy "wanted no part of school because of the derisive cries of her schoolmates" and she had no family after her great great grandmother died.
4. Past Winners of the Whitbread Awards. Archived 2009-12-29 at the Wayback Machine (pdf).
5. "Rumer Godden – The Diddakoi". BBC. Retrieved 17 December 2022..
     First broadcast 11 and 18 March 2012 by BBC Radio 4 Extra. Last broadcast September 2013.
     BBC provides these capsules for the two 30-minute episodes: (1) "After her gran dies, half-gypsy Kizzy faces an uncertain future, living with Miss Brooke and trouble at school." (2) "Kizzy is a diddakoi, a half-gypsy who finds her world turned upside when her beloved gran dies."
6. "Gypsy girl" (HarperTrophy, c2002). LC Catalog. Retrieved 17 December 2022.