IN the Hereford Times (November 29) Shanterlena Knowles of Travellers Times, published in Hereford, wrote of her experiences as part of the Romany (Gypsy) community “fighting to dispel our big fat misconceptions”.

At last someone has grasped the fact that My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on Channel 4 actually lampooned and insulted normal Gypsy life.

I speak as someone with a Romany heritage (from 19th century Worcestershire), part of whose family on my father’s side travelled between Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

Now I am an international lawyer specialising in human rights, a former vice president of the National Gypsy Education Council, in the 1970s and chairman of the former St David’s Gypsy School (a registered charity) in Cardiff.

That programme did no service to the travelling community.

I work for Romany people, among others, here and in Hungary, Poland, Serbia etc, where they are treated appallingly and sometimes murdered.

Let’s not forget that the second largest ethnic minority ‘dealt with’ in the holocaust was the Sinti/Romany community in central and eastern Europe.

That prejudice is still rife there and here – witness the furore whenever a Gypsy site is proposed in any location – even when travellers buy and own land themselves.

Herefordshire can be proud that until recently Gypsies formed the biggest ethnic group in the county (I think it may now be east/central Europeans).

Be that as it may, society needs more understanding and tolerance of the Romany community, not mockery and distortion.

CHRISTOPHER A SHORT, Aberystwyth Crescent, Barry, South Wales.