When George Borrow lived with the Gypsies over 100 years ago, Petulengro told him: "Life is very sweet brother; who would wish to die?"
To find out if life was still sweet among English Gypsies, a group of young men whose connections allowed them to penetrate Gypsy family life in a way never before achieved, lived with and filmed two Gypsy families over a period of months in Kent and Essex during 1970 and 1971. The enquirers found a striking similarity between the present condition of Gypsies and that of nomadic peoples all over the world who have come into direct collision with modern societies. Are the only two solutions integration or destruction?

The Middle Kingdom has passed away. It was the name used by the Chinese Emperors to describe their ancient land, a country situated between Heaven and Earth. Just as the Middle Kingdom is no more, so in mainland China the exotic customs, rites and age-old pageantry have gone. They still live, however, in the group of islands we know as Hong Kong.