Sarah Darling joins the circus!

Country star Sarah Darling (third from left, back) has teamed up with Cirque Musica and a full symphony orchestra for Wonderland - a Christmas tour of circus acts and holiday hits that will be travelling across the USA until December 23.

Wonderland will also be the name of Darling's new album, recorded in the UK with some of the writers and producers behind the recent hits of Kylie Minogue and Ellie Goulding, which will be released on March 1. More info: www.sarahdarling.com

Bobbo's Diary of a Clown, Part Two: Back in the Big Top!

Bobbo

Last summer saw Bobbo Roberts starring in the Circus Funtastic Summer Spectacular at Billing Aquadome in Northampton,

In this latest peek into his diary, he gives us a clown's eye view of life in the big top...

"With the school holidays approaching, most people start to think, ‘What can we do with the kids?’ Well I had other things on my mind, I’d just been sent a contract for 6 weeks back under the big top. My worry was that after last year’s prankster craze with people in rubber masks tarnishing the good name and work of us fools, would my new boss want me in my normal slap and motley (make up and costume)? I don’t wear a lot of slap anyway but I thought I’d check, as I had been working on a new look for some of my gigs at the music hall and this would give me a chance to try an even subtler look for Bobbo.

Bobbo sets off
circus style

I grabbed my new costume: a lovely grey number that sets me apart from the stereotypical brightly coloured clown look, and started to pack my cases. I got to thinking as I was packing, ‘I wonder who will be there?’ as most times I turn up, there's always someone I know. With so many years in circus under my belt and my family being in the business, you can always rely on meeting at least one old friend or family member. So I said goodbye to my wife and kids, knowing I’d be seeing them in a couple of weeks when they come to join me on this new adventure, and made my way to the train station. I must have made quite the sight with multiple suitcases riding a unicycle to the train station. Although I was leaving my house I felt like I was going home.

The Big Top in Billing Aquadome

Being on the train gives you time to think, so I was busy writing notes on my upcoming performance. It was a very pleasant journey but I couldn't help thinking of all the towns we passed, seeing the names and remembering being there with my dad’s own show and  the other shows I've been on. I remembered little bits of what happened there, if the business was good and if there was any good book shops and chovey shops (second hand shops).

Hand balancing

I arrived at Northampton, my new but old home as lot of my ancestors had came from there and nearby. As most of you know, I’m a Roberts and a Fossett too. I got picked up by Josh Mack, my new boss. We both knew of each other but had never met. We both grew up in the circus, though, so as we drove to the tober (circus ground) we were chatting ten to the dozen about people we both knew.

As we arrived and passed through the gates he explained the venue had been double booked and they had another event happening, so we were not going to get built up and open on the day they had planned. We did get the big top up the next day but  by golly it was so hot and took a bit longer then normal. Luckily there was a pub nearby and they kept us topped up with lovely jugs of ice water.
There were a few acts to yet to arrive, but we got the tent up and wagons in place around the tent (someone once said cowboy style).

Original aerial apparatus

There’s not many jobs where you can walk from your home to your office in seconds. I suppose that’s one of the many things I love about circus. As I took a walk for the first time into the big top and set about getting my light and music cues sorted, some of the other acts started to turn up, like the Garcia sisters whose family, like mine, are the backbone of many a circus. The vast array of different acts they do adds to the stew pot of a successful show. In this one they were doing a magic act and an exercise ball act with acrobatics that I saw last time I worked with them on Charles and Rebecca Chipperfield’s Bollywood-style circus. They were also doing a Slinky act, and one of the girls was doing a trapeze act but with a giant spring prop that can only be described as a big version of one of those big twisted stakes that you use to leash your dog on. I've not seen it before but it was very nice and it gave Kelly lots of moves to do from walking up and down it to toe-hanging.

The other acts we had on the show were a couple who did a roller skating act & a rola rola act, both very nice acts with lovely costumes. We had a lovely young Swiss girl doing two aerial acts. Both were very good strong acts. And a Bulgarian who did a hula hoop act that she on a walking globe while going up a very large ramp. She normally performed this as two acts but this time combined it into one act which always got the audience cheering and clapping.

Hula hoops and globe

A Hungarian man did aerial straps, with costume and music from the film Spider-Man. He did many poses and tricks and normally the case in these acts is the kids get bored but he kept them engaged for his whole act. His second act was a hand balance act using blocks, using two hands and one hand, and as my brother-in-law has done this act I understand just how hard it is..

Completing the show were two of our youngest performers 14 and 15-year-old Enrique and Diego - strange names but their dad was a maths teacher (he-he!). Their first act was in mascot costumes having a dance-off to all the crazy dance moves from the classics to modern ones like the floss. I prefer candy floss, but it went very well. The brothers had an agreement: every day the audience chose the winner of the dance-off and the brothers kept track of who won the most throughout the season. At the end of the season whoever won had to buy the other a gift of their own choosing. It was always fun to watch as the boys was giving it their all. Their second act was a comedy trampoline act done in the style of the Blues Brothers, costume and music all matched the themes in a well thought out act that used the music to great effect.

The cast with children from a local blind school
who enjoyed the sounds and smell of the circus

They also had some clown called Bobbo (that some of you may have heard of). I never got to see his act as I was always busy in the ring when he was on, but I think the audience enjoyed it. My gags were very short but to the point. That is all I need to make an impact, though. Sometimes I wore my full make-up and sometimes I didn’t, but every day I wore a red nose and big boots. If you’re a fellow clown you should try without make up one day. It’s not easy but it is fun to try. I’ve only recently started working without the slap but now I love doing both. It was great to be back in the ring and I had a fab time being back in the business I know and love, working with lots of like minded people, and having lots of barbeques. It was very caveman-like as we all sat around a fire talking and laughing.  We were all from different backgrounds and countries but each of us had two things in common: we want to perform and we love circus."

Bobbo on Clacton Pier
in 2017

For more insights into life in the big top, click here to read Part One of Bobbo's Diary: Chovy Shops and Unicycles.

Bring in the holographic horses, as Circus Roncalli rides into the future

With animals steadily disappearing from circuses around the world, some traditional big top fans may see Circus Roncalli's latest attraction as another surrender to animal rights activists. But as we celebrate 250 years of the first modern circus - created by horseman Philip Astley - it's important to remember that the circus tradition is a tradition of innovation.

Astley wasn't the first trick horse-rider of his day - there were many like him, newly returned from the wars, who found a new use for their equestrian skills. Astley's innovation was to put horse stunts in a circle, as opposed to on a long straight, which gave his displays a more theatrical setting. He then added a series of other acts, from tumblers to strongmen and clowns, that made up the variety show format of circus as we know it.

The strength of that format has always been its ability to include new, different and never-before-seen acts designed to keep the crowds coming back each season.

Over the past 250 years, circus promoters have been tireless in finding new spectacles: the flying trapeze, wild animals, freaks of nature, acts from different cultures around the world, be it American cowboy knife-throwing and lassoing or oriental plate-spinning and martial arts.

From hippos that sweat blood to the chainsaws and motorbikes of Archaos, circus has always traded on the new.

And so it is with Germany's Roncalli. Established in 1976, the company was among the first to update circus by linking acts with themes and storylines, which paved the way for the mega-success of Cirque du Soleil. For 2018, they now bring us holographic horses, elephants and giant fish.

Is it a surrender to the animal rights movement or, as I prefer to see it, the latest step in the big top's ever forward-marching quest to give audiences something brand new to go "Wow, I've never seen anything like that before!"

The answer, for me, lies in those shots of jam-packed seats. Sure, it's possible to miss the real animals, but for all the sense of tradition that sometimes surrounds it, the circus has never thrived by looking back - it's lifeblood has always been the new.

When I set out to write Circus Mania, I didn't want to write a history book. Yes, there is history in it, because there are glimpses of tradition everywhere you look in the big top, and it's hard to look at any new act without seeing the ghosts of performers from fifty, a hundred or 250 years ago. My real concern, though, was to explore the lives of circus performers as they are lived today. As such I found myself backstage in a world of constant innovation as predominantly young people strove to create new acts and new styles of show that moved the old traditions forward. The Mail on Sunday called Circus Mania "A brilliant account of a vanishing art form." But is it really vanishing? Some of the older styles are, yes, just as the past is always receding into the distance. But, just as a snake leaves its old skin behind, the ever evolving circus itself keeps coming up fresh and new.
Take a glimpse into the ever-changing world of the big top by clicking here to order the new and revised second edition of Circus Mania from Amazon.

Off to the circus!

With his bags and unicycle, Bobbo heads
for the circus!

Following his summer season on Clacton seafront last year, Bobbo Roberts will this year be wowing families in the rural surroundings of Billing Aquadome leisure park in Northampton.

It was circus matriarch Tanya Mack who put Bobbo forward for the Clacton pier show and this year she's booked him for her own Circus Funtastic, which runs from July 23 - September 27.

Here's what the funny man had to say:

“They say you can shake the sawdust out of your socks but not your heart so with that in mind, after being on Clacton pier last summer where he had so much fun in the sun, Bobbo is puting  his motley and clobber on again in a whole new adventure in Billing Acqadrome Circus.

“As most of my family is from Northampton I’m looking forward to going to the library and finding out as much as I can about my family. As I’m fond of saying, the Roberts and Fossetts don't have a family tree, we’ve got a forest  - and I’m one of the nuts who have fallen from the tree.

“I might have gone on a different branch but my roots remain in circus, and I might be barking up the wrong tree but I’m looking forward to this new challenge and hope I can get to try and sneak in some of my new gags that I've been working on. A clown is very much like a plant - it needs water (an audience) to branch out and grow.”

Click here to find out how he got on!

Bobbo catches up with his reading
- Circus Mania, of course!

Diary of a Clown - Part One
Click here to read about Bobbo's adventures on Clacton Pier last year.

When Rick Astley met Philip Astley (sort of)

I always wondered if 80s singer Rick Astley was a descendant of Philip Astley, the equestrian who founded the modern circus 250 years ago this year. It seems not, since Philip had only one son, who never had children of his own - which also explains why you don't come across many, if any, Astley's in the modern circus.

Rick did briefly run away with the circus, however, in this video for his 1991 single Never Knew Love.

My thanks to actor and ringmaster Chris Barltrop for bringing it my attention. The clip was filmed in the Circus Berlin big top in London's Acton Park with performers including Rani, a well-known elephant on the scene at the time.

Barltrop features in the video as ringmaster.

Chris Barltrop
as Philip Astley

Today, Barltrop is keeping the Astley name alive (Philip that is, not Rick!) with his one man show, The Audacious Mr Astley. Find out more, here.

And click here for 15 Facts about the Father of the Circus.

The Vegan Agenda - Why Circuses Were Just The Thin Edge of the Wedge

Warning from the big top

For decades now, campaigners such as ADI (Animal Defenders International) and Peta (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals) have been saying that circus animals are cruelly treated. And it's worked. Animals have been gradually squeezed out of the circus ring on both sides of the Atlantic by local legislation that prevented circuses operating in prime municipally owned venues and, increasingly, national bans, such as the one has has this month come into force in Scotland.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus, the self-proclaimed Greatest Show on Earth and arguably most iconic circus in the world, was forced to close after more than a century because of such legislation.

The evidence does not support these bans. In 2007, the UK government-commissioned Radford report found circuses were as capable of meeting their animals' needs as zoos or other captive environments. Since 2012, a licensing scheme has regulated the use of wild animals in circuses and has produced no evidence of mistreatment.

The government has announced, however, that when the licensing scheme expires it will not be extended, bringing in a ban by default.

Why are circus animals being banned if there's no evidence that they are intrinsically cruel?

Martin Burton

When I interviewed Zippos owner Martin Burton for my book Circus Mania he explained that the campaigners were motivated by a deeper agenda: they didn't believe people should even keep pets or eat meat.

At the time, I confess that I didn't fully connect the dots. Yes, I thought, anti-circus campaigners may well be anti-vivisectionists and vegetarians and so on... but I couldn't see that side of their agenda catching on with the wider public. It's one thing to support a campaign against perceived or alleged cruelty (whether proven or just suggested) another to turn your back on meat and pets.

In the last couple of years, however, the mass media push for veganism has been impossible to miss. You can't open a newspaper or magazine without reading about a new meat-free business or recipes for meat-free meals.

Today the circus,
Tommorow...?

Protests against fast food restaurants, supermarkets and local butchers are becoming as familiar as the demonstrations that were once confined to circuses. I have seen full-page national newspaper adverts against milk production, which shows how well-funded and/or connected the vegan lobby is.

The anti-circus campaigners, meanwhile, are revealing their wider hand. At the foot of a press release that came my way today, ADI outlined its mission:

Active worldwide to end the suffering of animals: animals in entertainment – film, television, advertising, circuses, and sport or leisure; animals used for food or fur; protection of wildlife and the environment; trade in animals; zoos, pets, entertainment, and laboratories.

Note the words "food" and "pets" - there for all to see.

It's very similar to Peta's slogan, as displayed on its website:

ANIMALS ARE NOT OURSto eat, wear, experiment on, use forentertainment or abuse in any other way

The ADI press release was in support of a film called Anima, in which representatives from 12 religions talk about changing our attitudes to meat.

According to one of the participants, Rabbi Singer: “Our belief in Judaism is that God never actually meant us to eat animals,” explaining “In the Garden of Eden, God shows us the fruit of the trees, the grass in the fields, and says ‘You may have any of this to eat.’ But God never mentioned animals.”

ADI president Jan Creamer, meanwhile, has this to say: “Millions of people across the world draw their beliefs and perceptions about the other species who share our planet, from their faith. There has never been a more important time to challenge themisunderstandings which have, in the past, been used to justify exploitation of animals. As Dr Lo Sprague says in ANIMA, every religion has compassion as part of its mandate. It is time to mobilize that.”


The film appears to say nothing about circuses, but the fact it is being promoted by ADI proves what the circus industry has been telling us all along: that the massive fundraising campaigns built around 'circus cruelty' were never really about circus cruelty at all, just part of a wider agenda.

As the post-circus campaign for worldwide veganism unfolds around us, it's a shame the warnings from the big top mostly fell on deaf ears.

Father of the Circus celebrated in Philip Astley's home town of Newcastle under Lyme

Celebrations marking 250 years of the circus have continued in Newcastle under Lyme, the birthplace of Philip Astley, the Father of the Modern Circus, with a new multi-part metal monument that forms the gateway to the town.

Located on George Street, the monument, which lights up at night, was designed by Candida Kelsall and built by 17-year-old Liam Robinson with funding from the Realise Foundation and Newcastle Business Improvement District. It depicts ringmaster Astley flanked by two rearing horses.

The unveiling was attended by the local mayor and mayoress, along with a delegation from the Circus Friends Association, Carol Gandey from one of Britain's foremost circus promoters Gandey World Class Productions, and performers from Circus Starr, the charity circus that is part of the Gandey organisation. Also present was Zsuzsanna Mata, executive director of Monte Carlo's Federation Mondiale du Cirque and illusionist Andrew Van Buren from the Astley Project, who for 30 years has campaigned for recognition of Astley's legacy in his home town.

For 15 Facts about Philp Astley, the Father of the Circus, click here.

For more about Circus Starr, the circus that helps kids, click here.

For more on the history and culture of the circus, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away With The Circus! Click here to buy the updated second edition.

Aerialist by Rebecca Truman - Book Review

Rebecca Truman is the Grande Dame of aerial. “Cut me in half and I will have aerialist written all the way through,” she writes in this engrossing memoir.

In 1988, Truman founded Skinning the Cat, a pioneering all-woman trapeze troupe that performed principally at outdoor events throughout Britain and Europe, but also in circus tents and theatres. Truman was star, costumer, artistic director, rigger, truck driver... in fact, she did pretty much everything. Her reluctance or inability to delegate responsibility led to an punishing schedule that eventually brought her to the point of breakdown.

“My years as an aerialist are divided into before and after the falls,” she writes on the first page. “Those accidents changed everything. Before the falls I was running wild and fulfilling my fantasies. Afterwards, it became all too real.”

The Silver Tree rig

When Truman’s colleague Lou plunges head-first to a concrete floor, the dangers of trapeze are brought violently home to the reader. Was Lou’s accident Truman’s responsibility for running an un-funded company too close to the brink of exhaustion? When Truman subsequently breaks an ankle (that never heals properly) was it her fault for bringing a still-recovering Lou back to work too soon, or for not training her sufficiently on the lunge that would have prevented Truman’s accident?

Those are the questions that haunt her as company leader. But the show always goes on. Forced to hobble on stage on crutches, Truman creates a character that makes the crutch part of her act. In the air, the trapeze frees her from her disability.

Everyone in the circus has a colourful story to tell, but few can tell their own tale as well as Truman. In this gripping journey into the life and mind of a trapeze artist, Truman writes with all the evocative colour and underlying precision of the shows she describes

With a novelist’s eye for detail, she brilliantly evokes the glitter and grit of her surroundings at art school, in training gyms, in lorries and caravans, and freezing cold offices in derelict former woollen mills.

For students of the trapeze, Aerialist is essential reading. There’s an insider’s manual worth of detail on every aspect of how to run and rig a show, down to how to remove a cobblestone from a town square in order to drive in a stake to anchor the rig - or, if that doesn’t work, anchor it from a builder’s skip.

Chameleon rig

But this is also the story of a life. From a bohemian childhood scarred by sexual abuse by her grandfather, and the death of her father when she was young, to the nervous breakdown when all those unresolved issues eventually caught up with her, Truman reveals how her career on the trapeze was driven by the desire to escape.

Her narrative is broken up and enriched by the accounts of her mother, company members and, memorably, Zippos founder Martin Burton who recalls asking the Arts Council for funding in the days when circus wasn’t recognised as an art form. Sitting in opulent offices full of furniture he reckoned was worth more than his entire circus, he was told, “If we had any money we’d give it to you.”

Since they claimed not to have the money, he decided to steal the reception desk - a plan that failed when he couldn’t get it through the revolving doors.

Many years later, when Burton was appointed chairman of the Arts Council's Circus Advisory Committee, he told them, “You obviously don’t remember the last time I was here.” “Yes we do,” they said, “which is why the desk is screwed down.”

The text is also peppered with information boxes that provide a glossary of trapeze moves and equipment - Skinning the Cat takes its name from an aerial manoeuvre - plus some poems by Truman that offer insights into an aerialist’s connection to her work that mere prose couldn’t quite capture.

It all adds up to a thrilling read that sits with the best circus memoirs, such as Nell Gifford’s Gifford’s Circus - The First Ten Years (and Josser, written as Nell Stroud) and Gerry Cottle’s Confessions of a Showman.

Click here to order Aerialist by Rebecca Truman from Amazon.

See also: 10 Books for Circus250!

The sad case of the vanishing circus animals

The circus - where else can you get this
close to a tiger?

I just read an article in which the writer took a package trip to India costing £3195 per person. The “highlight” was a visit to a national park where a tiger walked within 200 yards of her truck. This was considered “lucky” since a sighting is not guaranteed.

Compare that with my spur of the moment visit to the Great British Circus (tickets about £5) where I sat within feet of half a dozen tigers displaying all their natural cat-like behaviours, such as jumping between pedestals in return for a piece of pork. And where I also saw horses galloping within feet of me, camels parading past and elephants swishing their trunks and tusks around close enough to make me lean back in my seat.

Compare it, too, to my visit to Peter Jolly’s Circus where I sat for a hour listening to Thomas Chipperfield explain how big cats are trained by using their natural inquisitiveness. The trainer’s stick and whip, for example, aren’t used to keep the animal away, but to draw it towards you, the way a house cat follows a piece of string.

Tsavo the lion relaxes backstage

Within minutes of talking to Thomas, who’s family has been training animals for 300 years, it was clear he knew more about his animals than you would ever learn from a television documentary. Out behind the tent, meanwhile, it was a pleasure to see one of his lions, Tsavo, looking so relaxed, contented and well-kept in his sunny enclosure.

During the shows, it was clear that the animals were the main attraction, particularly for the many children in the audience, who watched enthralled, unlikely ever to be so close to such beasts (for the big top was set up in an area where few residents were likely to spend £3000+ per person on a foreign safari).

Yet the pleasure and educational benefits that the circus brings is under threat.

The Great British Circus closed several years ago when a ban on wild animals in travelling shows was first mooted. A licensing scheme was brought in as a temporary measure, which allowed Chipperfield to tour his animals with Peter Jolly’s Circus.

Me and the Elephant
The author meets one of the last jumbos
to appear in a British circus

Earlier this year, however, Chipperfield was denied a license to tour with his big cats in a show of his own. He is currently planning an appeal against the decision, but with DEFRA proclaiming its commitment to letting the temporary licence scheme expire in 2020, and thus bringing in a ban by default, the political deck is clearly stacked against Chipperfield.

We can only hope that Britain's Last Lion Tamer prevails against the odds and gives audiences at least one more chance to see his animals close up.

When my book Circus Mania was first published, including accounts of my visits to Britain’s last animal circuses, the Mail on Sunday called it “A brilliant account of a vanishing art form.”

Is it still “vanishing”? Or will Circus Mania prove to be the last description of an art form that has already vanished from the country where the circus was born?

Click here to buy the updated 2nd Edition of Circus Mania from Amazon. 

Roll up, roll up, this Saturday, for World Circus Day!

Click here for 20 Circus Facts!

American Circus in Paris!

Ringling may have retired across the pond, but in Paris zay have ze elephants! Ze tigers! Ze parades! Ze 3 (count 'em) rings!

Book now for Christmas!

Peter Jolly's Circus - The Most Traditional Show On Earth!

A lovely teaser for one of my favourite circuses. Read about my visit to this beautiful traditional show in the new updated edition of Circus Mania.

Click here to buy from Amazon.

New plaque marks site of the first circus

2018 is the 250th anniversary of the very first circus, and to mark the occasion, Lambeth Residents Association have installed a blue plaque as close as possible to the site of the very first ring, which was established by Philip Astley, the Father of the Circus, in 1768.

Chris Barltrop as Philp Astley

The plaque was unveiled on Easter Monday by ringmaster and circus historian Chris Barltrop, who was dressed as Astley and added to the celebrations by performing his one man play The Audacious Mr Astley.

Astley, of course, was a horseman, famed for brandishing his sword while standing atop of a galloping horse, and so there were naturally horses on hand, too, ridden by the Khadikov Riders from Zippos circus, which is currently resident in Blackheath.

The plaque, which also commemorates Astley's wife Patty, herself a horsewoman who performed in his shows, is located at Cornwall Road, in Waterloo. The unveiling was followed by a residents' street party.

For details of where Chris Barltrop will be performing The Audacious Mr Astley in future, visit www.centreforcircusculture.eu

For 15 Facts about Philip Astley, the Father of the Circus, click here.

The Khadikov Riders

When the circus was on the cover of the Radio Times

Bobby Roberts, 1979

Zippos rides into 2018!

A image to gladden the hearts of circus fans! The Khadikov Riders are among the stars of Zippos' new show Legacy, which opens in Blackheath, London on March 29, as the first stop on its 2018 tour. 

Also on the bill are Cuban acrobats the Hermansito Troupe, clown Totti Alexis, the legendary Norman Barrett MBE and his famous budgies, and Brazilian aerialist Alex Michael, who will be performing 30ft above the ring with no safety wires or net!

Book your seats on 0871 210 2100.

Why circuses should have animals, by Dr Marthe Kiley-Worthington

It was refreshing to read an article by noted animal behaviourist Dr Marthe Kiley-Worthington stressing the positive benefits to both humans and animals of having animals in the circus ring.

In this quote from Country Squire Magazine, Kiley-Worthington doesn't just defend the practise but endorses it.

"There are very important arguments why pleasant interested contact between animals and humans should be encouraged and fostered and circuses can do this.  These are: 1) because relationships between humans and non-human animals can be mutually rewarding and enriching for both (and not just for therapy). 2) Because humans then have some experiences of direct contact, experience the emotions and mental abilities of different animals and realise that they too are sentient, thinking beings with desires and needs of all kinds, have value in themselves (not just an instrumental value for humans to benefit from) and therefore must be conserved. No TV documentaries, films, or watching through binoculars will provide these emotional exchanges & experiences that contact with others does provide "

Dr Kiley-Worthington was previously the author of Chiron's World, a ground-breaking study of circus animals that was sponsored by the RSPCA but not published by them because its findings conflicted with the Society's anti-circus agenda. Click here to read it in full.

She is currently a director of the Eco Research and Education Centre and has just published a paper on the similarities between all mammals, including humans. Read it here.

Circus books for teenagers and children

Do kids still grow up wanting to run away with the circus? They might after reading Bunty Armitage Circus Girl by former circus performer Pixi Robertson.

This lively Young Adult adventure sees the life of an everyday high-schooler turned upside down when she reluctantly accompanies her glamorous friend Cilla to an open audition for a part in a television mini-series.

Cilla doesn’t get the part, but the producers immediately latch onto Bunty, because of her uncanny resemblance to Louise Ireland, an historical circus performer that the series is about.

Things get really weird, however, when Bunty finds herself on set wearing Louise’s old costume... and is mysteriously transported back in time to an Australian circus a hundred years earlier.

The tale was inspired by Robertson’s friendship with the late nonogenarian circus pioneer Alice Evelyn Hyland and is packed with atmospheric insight into the life on a travelling show in the early 20th century.

Photos of Robertson riding circus horses in her younger days (that’s her on the cover) help to bring the spirit of the big top alive, while the sparky teenage voice of Bunty, the narrator, creates an engaging mix of past and present that will keep you turning the pages to the end. Click here to buy the paperback or ebook.

There’s more circus magic in Robertson’s Young Adult romance Tempo, which comes with a great cover illustration of Australia’s Flying Ashtons painted by Mitzi Allison Tilley.

Lina Casamiro, just back from college, is struggling to fit into her family’s flying trapeze act, which forms the centrepiece of their traditional travelling circus. She becomes more focused, though, when the dashing multi-millionaire Giles Deglorian, owner of an international Cirque du Soleil-style enterprise, arrives on the scene with a plan to hire Circus Casamiro and make Lina the star of his next equestrian spectacular.

Once again, there’s plenty of insight into circus life, and in particular circus life in Australia, which adds its own layer of interest to the story. The issue of animal rights is explored in some depth, although the animal rights protesters are perhaps overly caricatured - circuses find them a much harder foe to deal with in the real world.

This is, however, an escapist romance and it rattles along with enough intrigue, skulduggery and excitement to make life under canvas look like an appealing career choice for any teen. Click here to buy the paperback or ebook.

Finally, for much younger readers, Robertson has written A Book of Circus - an alphabet book in which A is for acrobat, B is for balancing and big top, C is for clown and... well, you get the picture.

This A4-size, landscape shape book has a soft cover and, with a page for each letter of the alphabet, is crammed with colourful photos of circus life. It’s a pro-circus animal book with elephants, giraffes, horses and monkeys, and comes with a two-page section at the back to explain to children (and their parents!) how well the animals are looked after. Even the study by behaviourist Dr Marthe Kiley-Worthington is mentioned.

There’s also a two-page section telling the history of the circus and, particularly, the circus in Australia. Did you know the first circus performances down under were performed by Robert Avis Radford in 1847? Or that bushranger Ned Kelly was a circus fan who visited Ashton’s Circus on many occasions?

Such facts, and the fact that the photographs are from Australian circuses such as Ashton’s, Webers and Stardust will make the book of interest to grown-up circus fans in other parts of the world, too. Click here to order by messaging Pixi via Facebook.

"Circus Mania is a brilliant account of a vanishing art form"

But don't take my word for it, take the word of Roger Lewis who said that about it in Britain's biggest-selling Sunday paper, the Mail on Sunday.
Click here to read the full review.

Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson on TV

My thanks to Fabiana Cacace at That's Norfolk TV for interviewing me about Circus Mania, the stories that inspired the book, Norwich and Great Yarmouth's historical claim to be jointly one of the Six Cities of Circus, and the new updated edition of Circus Mania released to celebrate 250 years of life and death in the sawdust circle.

To read the incredible tales of acrobats, clowns, sword-swallowers, tiger-trainers and showmen that I discovered while writing Circus Mania, click here to buy the book the Mail on Sunday called "A brilliant account of a vanishing art form."

Norwich Castle lit up for First Day of Circus

(Credit: Norwich Evening News)

Here's Norwich Castle lit up with Sir Peter Blake's Circus250 logo to celebrate the birth of the circus, 250 years ago on 9 January, 1768. And when BBC Radio Norfolk announced the light show on the 4pm news... they included a sound bite from "Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson...!"

The quote was taken from my earlier on-air chat with Stephen Bumfrey. You can listen to the whole interview here (I'm on just after the 3pm news, introduced, naturally, with that unmistakable piece of circus music Entrance of the Gladiators!)

In our wide-ranging chat about all things circus, we talked about Norwich's own historical circus star Pablo Fanque - Britain's first black circus proprietor during the 19th century - and Stephen played the Beatles song Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite, which was inspired by John Lennon coming across a poster for Pablo Fanque's circus in an antique shop window.

Click here to read 15 Facts about Philip Astley - the man who invented the circus!

First Day of Circus to light up Britain for Circus250

The Great Yarmouth Hippodrome
will be lit up for #firstcircusday

Today, January 9, marks the 250th anniversary of the very first circus, and the Six Cities of Circus will be lighting up Britain by projecting the Sir Peter Blake-designed Circus250 logo on prominent buildings including Norwich Castle, the Blackpool Tower, the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, the Derry Walls in Belfast, the We Are Curious science centre in Bristol and the Guildhall in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where Philip Astley, the inventor of the circus was born.

The illuminations are expected to begin at about 4.20pm when it gets dark.

Circus fans and circus companies, meanwhile, will be marking the launch of the year-long Circus250 celebrations by taking to social media to share news of their plans, coming events and all things circus under the hashtags #firstdayofcircus and #Circus250.

The Six Cities of Circus are:

www.circus250.org

Newcastle-under-Lyme - Birthplace of Philip Astley, the Father of the Circus as we know it. Click here to read 15 Facts about him. NoFit State Circus premieres their new in-the-ring show Lexicon under their big top in March and Astley’s Astounding Adventures – specially commissioned for Circus250 year - opens at New Vic Theatre in July.

London - Birthplace of Philip Astley‘s first circus - the first circus in the world, in fact! - and home of the National Centre for Circus Arts (Read all about the former Circus Space here). CircusFest – the Roundhouse’s month-long celebration of contemporary circus – kicks off in April. The V&A is one of many major London museums joining in the celebrations with a Friday Late Circus – Past, Present and Future.

Launch of the Circus250 logo
in London

Bristol - Home to more circus companies than any other British city. The Royal West of England Academy Circus250 exhibition Sawdust and Sequins opens in Bristol in March accompanied by performance from Bristol circus school Circomedia.

Pablo Fanque
plaque in Norwich

Norwich and Great Yarmouth (joint) - Norwich is the 19th century birthplace of Britain’s first black circus proprietor Pablo Fanque. Events in Norwich will include The Lord Mayor’s Celebrations featuring a circus parade with life-sized elephant puppets winding through the streets in July, and Famished, the new show by Norwich-based Lost in Translation, opens. The seaside town of Great Yarmouth, meanwhile, is home to the Hippodrome, Britain’s only surviving complete circus building. Click here to read about the fateful encounter in this legendary circus building that inspired Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away With the Circus.

Blackpool - Home of the Tower Circus staging shows since 1894. The town comes alive with circus celebrations, from the traditional Tower Circus to the cutting edge Grundy Gallery.

Belfast - Throughout the Troubles in Northern Ireland, circus schools were places where the two communities met to create great work. Contemporary Tumble Circus’s Christmas show closes the Circus250 celebratory year in Belfast’s Writers Square.

For details of forthcoming events visit www.circus250.org

As we head into circus' biggest year for 250 years, get your circus on by reading Circus Mania by Douglas McPherson - a backstage journey through a secret world of clowns, jugglers, tiger trainers, sword-swallowers, trapeze artists and showmen. 

Click here to read the 5-star reviews on Amazon of the book the Mail on Sunday called "A brilliant account of a vanishing art form."

And may all your days be circus days!