20 Years on: Eva Garcia - Her life and Death in the Sawdust Circle



Eva Garcia
Her life and death in the circus
inspired Circus Mania

Hard to believe it’s twenty years since I interviewed Eva Garcia for The Stage. She told me about her life of hard knocks in the sawdust circle - the dislocations, operations and lonely travel, but also the fierce dedication that bound her to a life her family had lived for the past hundred years. She’d just ended a long-term relationship to a man who finally asked her to choose between him and the circus. She chose the circus, feeling she still had ten years of performing ahead of her.

The biggest change Eva had seen in the circus during her lifetime was in the area of presentation. “You still need good tricks,” she smiled, “But these days you don’t have to kill yourself.”



The day after the article appeared, Eva fell 40 feet to her death during a performance at Britain’s oldest circus building still used for its original purpose, the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome.

Eva Garcia

Eva’s story inspired my journey into the world of circus. I met Britain’s oldest circus family and saw the UK’s last circus with elephants and tigers. I talked to sword-swallowers, clowns, animal trainers and showmen about their unique lives, history, culture, superstitions and secrets.

The result was Circus Mania (Peter Owen Publishing) which the Mail on Sunday called “A brilliant account of a vanishing art form.”

Click here to download Circus Mania on Kindle or buy the paperback from Amazon. Then go and see a circus for yourself.

Marvel at the daredevilry.

And think of Eva.

Click here to read more about Eva Garcia's final performance, in an extract from Circus Mania