I said the other day I'm not one for nostalgia. But there's no doubting that the market for yesteryear non-fiction is a pretty lucrative one. And a good example of the genre is the Romany media astrologer Eva Petulengro's The Girl in the Painted Caravan, just announced by Pan for February 2011 release.
The memoir describes the world of Romany gypsy travellers that's all but disappeared from the British countryside. Eva 'didn’t go to school or visit a doctor when she was unwell,' reads part of the blurb. 'Instead her family would gather wild herbs to make traditional remedies, hunt game and rabbits, and while the men tended horses to make a living, the young girls would join the women in reading palms.'
Having worked with Eva many years ago on her magazine Romany, I know she has a sharp recollection of the history of her culture and of the many intriguing characters she encountered on her journeys.
lucky white heather .... clothes pegs ...tarmac your drive .... gawd luv em all
ReplyDeleteNow stop it.
ReplyDeleteI went to Blackpool in July and fully intended to take advantage of the many squillion Petulengro 'fortune tellers' in the town.
ReplyDeleteIn the Pleasure Beach there was a sign that said 'readings from £5', so I duly turned up with £20 thinking that I'd get maybe a 3-card reading.
The £5 got you your 'magic' numbers - which the Petulengro lady in question freely admitted came from a print out and had not a speck of esoteric input from herself. Readings started at around £50...
I left with my £20 intact.
She may be a bona fide Romany, but others of her lineage just seem to be bona fide sharks.
Ali
I suspect the Petulengro name has been lifted by some dodgy practitioners, but Eva and her daughter Claire (whose columns appear in the Daily Mirror and loads of other publications including Teletext Holidays) are bona fide Romany astrologers. There's a rather good Petulengro palmist in Bognor.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there is a Petulengro palmist in Great Yarmouth, but each time we have passed she is either busy or closed. Maybe this season :-)
ReplyDelete