This is a scholarly account of the shaping of Gypsy identity in the UK, contextualised in terms of recent and historic tendencies to either misrepresent or misrecognise Gypsy culture. The book suggests that understandings of Gypsy culture are enhanced by understandings of how strangers are recognised within society and by understandings of how 'white' culture differentiates itself. It examines how multi-cultural society reproduces many of the same aspects of misrecognition and misrepresentation that might be more readily equated with less liberal regimes.