Ray Buckland has been a familiar name in occult literature for over 30 years. The book half of this set, "Gypsy Fortune Telling & Tarot Reading", is the second edition of Buckland's 1988 book "Secrets of Gypsy Fortunetelling". He has expanded the section on card reading, including family spreads handed down from his Romani grandparents among his other revisions. The book provides an excellent sampler of gypsy dukkerin' (divination) methods, from cards and crystal balls to dice, tea leaves and moles on the skin. It also provides a feel for life in a gypsy caravan. Buckland begins with a brief history of the Romani and his family in particular, includes chapters focusing on a dozen divination methods, and ends with a brief ethics summary. Card reading is but a small part of this book.
The cards included with the kit are a recreation of the Buckland family deck. They are basically a deck of standard playing cards, with the jacks replaced by pages and knights. The trumps are non-standard, based on things in a gypsy's life like the Wise Woman and the Vardos (covered wagons). The Major Arcana, printed both horizonally and vertically, are always read upright. Even though reversed meanings are included for the Minor Arcana, Buckland suggests the deck would have to be marked to give most of the playing cards a definite up or down. These cards are a little smaller than most tarot decks, almost squarish, so they fit nicely into smaller hands. Unfortunately, the slick finish and initial stiffness made this deck difficult for me to shuffle.
Other than the section on card reading, I found the dice chapter particularly interesting. I would have liked to have had a set of dice included with the deck. One method involves rolling three dice into a 12" circle, with different meanings for the results from one through eighteen. Another dice method commonly used at carnivals features a list of 32 "standard" questions (mostly about romance), with sets of answers based on the roll of two dice.
While I would not recommended Ray Buckland's tarot deck for beginners, it is an interesting alternative for the deck collector. The book is highly recommended for those wanting to explore different divination methods.