It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief, which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness.

But the eagerly awaited Lavengro (1851) and The Romany Rye (1857) puzzled many readers who were not sure how much was fact and how much fiction (a question debated to this day). Borrow depicts Taylor an advocate of German Romantic literature in his semi-autobiographical novel Lavengro (1851). During his two-year sojourn in Russia Borrow called upon writer Alexander Pushkin.

Over the course of his wanderings he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe who figure prominently in his work. George Henry Borrow (5 July 1803 – 26 July 1881) was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his own experiences traveling around Europe.