Kizzy is a diddakoi - half gypsy and half Irish. She lives with her great great grandmother in a real gypsy wagon, and she doesn't go to school until social services insist. She's perfectly happy living her gypsy life in Admiral Sir Cunningham Twiss's orchard with great gran and their horse Joe. When great gran dies, she is taken in by Admiral Twiss, his man Peters, and Nat the groom, all of whom live in the big house. Kizzy recovers from pneumonia and must go back to school, where she is seriously bullied by the girls. Fostered by Miss Brooke (Admiral Twiss and his men having been considered unsuitable as foster parents),Kizzy and her gypsy ways take a lot of patience and skill, but in a series of mishaps and sometimes unrealistic happenings, she slowly begins to come round. This is a rivetting read, realistic or not. Kizzy's behavioural problems because of her different upbringing, her sometimes vicious behaviour when thwarted, and the other girls' truly terrible treatment of her are realistic enough. It is the happy ending and turning her into something of a little princess that reads in an old-fashioned way to modern eyes. Still, it's un-put-downable and splendidly written.