Who hasn’t dreamt of running off with the raggle-taggle gypsies oh…or enjoyed “My big fat gypsy wedding”? We used to have a gypsy family in our village and life was more “interesting” when they were here. There was always something to talk about and of course, if anything got stolen, they got the blame. They were prone to wild parties and once there were so many of them that the floor of their house gave way and they ended up in the cellar. Another time they rampaged around the village with shotguns and on another occasion the grandfather lost his temper and threw the washing machine out of the front window, into the street. They did also steal a whole room from my friends who lived next door to them…Anyway, here’s a childhood memoir by Eva Petulengro of fortune-telling fame, reviewed by Victor Olliver: Eva Petulengro “The Girl in the Painted Caravan”