Circus Mania

2011-12-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

CIRCUS MANIA

A GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT!

Looking for last minute Christmas presents? Why not take advantage of a great special offer to buy Circus Mania by Douglas McPherson at the special offer price of just £10 postage free?

Described by the critics as “Brilliant,” “Ingenious,” “Captivating” and “The greatest show on Earth in a book,” Circus Mania is packed with behind-the-scenes backstage stories and ideal Christmas reading for anyone with fond memories of childhood trips to the circus or more recent visits to Cirque du Soleil - that’s all of us, isn’t it?

Here’s what the critics and readers have said:

“Circus Mania is a brilliant account of a vanishing art form... an excellent book.”

- Roger Lewis, Mail on Sunday.

“Remarkable... captivating... beguiling... a real page-turner.”

- Eastern Daily Press

“

Like a good old fashioned circus the book rollicks along at a cracking pace, delivering a cast of colourful characters, and a parade of stories of the life-is-stranger-than-fiction variety. There are thrills and spills, acts of derring-do, heart-in-mouth moments, and laughs aplenty. The circus deserves this book and, like the circus, McPherson deserves for Circus Mania to reach a very wide and appreciative audience.”

- Tina Jackson, The Writers Hub website.

“The greatest show on Earth in a book. Circus Mania serves as a panoramic peek behind the velvet curtain, covering every imaginable aspect of what goes on behind the scenes. An unmissable read.”

- World’s Fair.

“Ingenious... engaging... a powerful introduction to circus performance then and now.”

- The Call Boy, British Music Hall Society

“Full of stories and anecdotes that give readers a good sense of the thrills and dangers associated with the big top. The book should appeal to circus fans of all ages and levels of interest.”

- Booklist (USA)

“A passionate and up-to-date look at the hard work, danger and sometimes even death that world class circus performers face every day.”

-Gerry Cottle, showman.

“I really loved reading this book. Every page buzzes with memorable characters and stories, some funny, some sad, all fascinating.”

- 5-star Amazon customer review.

“Circus Mania is one of those rare non-fiction books that you end up reading as if it is a novel. It has great characters and plots and beautifully written descriptions.”

- Another 5-star Amazon customer review.

To save £5 off the recommended retail price and buy Circus Mania at the special offer price of just £10 including postage in the UK (£2.75 postage worldwide) send cheques to:

Peter Owen Publishers

20 Holland Park Avenue

London W11 3QU

Credit card orders can be taken during office hours on the NEW phone number: 020 7792 1873

(Please note the NEW number for Peter Owen Publishers: 020 7792 1873)

WORLD CIRCUS DAY APRIL 21, 2012 - WORLD CIRCUS DAY APRIL 21, 2012 - WORLD CIRCUS DAY APRIL 21, 2012

2011-11-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA REVIEW
“An inside view from the outside.”

My thanks to Mort Gamble for his gracious and perceptive review of Circus Mania in The White Tops - America’s most famous circus magazine! Here’s the full review:

CIRCUS MANIA by Douglas McPherson
review by Mort Gamble
(White Tops Sept/Oct)

If the title of this exploration of Great Britain’s circus world is to be believed, the shows of that island nation are a bit on the wild and wacky side. McPherson’s book, however, comes across as a more thoughtful, restrained treatment of the British circus tradition, past and present. There’s nothing crazy about people earnestly carrying on a performing arts tradition, even if they do step out of the bounds or the normal, by outsiders’ standards, to do it. Outside observer McPherson is impressed.
Watching the Valez Brothers Wheel of Death act, McPherson realizes his fascination with circus performers “and the mysterious glue that binds them to their life of peril. They are, there is no doubt, a breed apart... they seem to exist for no other purpose than to make the impossible seem possible.” It’s easy to dismiss that statement as trite, but it’s helpful to remember that he is writing for a more general audience, not circus fans, not historians or scholars.
His book is a balancing act itself as an overview of circus history, tradition, contemporary formats and modern issues of management - including Britain’s struggles with vociferous animal rights protesters. It’s an inside view from the outside and, if anything, demonstrates the universality of the circus mind and spirit. As he quotes one circus owner, it’s about “the excitement of watching someone attempt something they may not actually be able to do.”
The British circus tradition predates America’s. Entrepreneur Philip Astley - like John Bill Ricketts in this country - built his early circus around horsemanship, adding clowns, acrobats and other acts. Well-known circus names like Smart, Chipperfield and Bertram Mills brought size, fame and fortune to the English circus tradition. Recent years have been less grand as shows abandoned their exotic animals and some took on other forms, morphing into the adult-only, the freaky, the water-worldly, the scary - circus escaping into the witness protection programme of cirque or stage production.
Some tradition big top shows have soldiered on, even daring to bring back their elephants, and McPherson gives a nod to them when he listens, at Martin Lacey’s Great British Circus, to the stirring march of Entrance of the Gladiators, breathes in the narcotic of sawdust, trampled grass and animals, and finds himself emotionally involved: “This is circus, undiluted and unashamed. It’s down, it’s marginalized, and there’s not much of it left... but it’s alive, it’s powerful and it will live on.”
Circus Mania lacks the streetwise wit of a Bill Ballantine, functioning more like the industry observations of a David Lewis Hammarstrom. As an overview of the circus in Great Britain, it has value in illustrating a diverse entertainment tradition that may be unfamiliar to Americans. McPherson clearly admires the heroics of circus performers and, equally, the grit of circus managers who find ways to keep going despite the times. He laments that animal protesters, bent on “bullying and intimidating” have missed a good show and concludes on a hopeful note about the positive role of live, physical circus in a digital age.
There is nothing fake about staying alive while training nature’s perfect killing machine - the tiger - he writes. Similarly, in the authenticity of circus life and legend, what you see is only part of what you get. He means to take us into that world for a closer look.
________________________________________________
!!!SPECIAL OFFER!!!SPECIAL OFFER!!!SPECIAL OFFER!!!!
Save £5 off the price of Circus Mania by ordering direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of just £10 postage-free in the UK (£2.75 postage worldwide). Send cheques to:
Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU
Tel: 020 7370 6093.

!!!CIRCUS!!!CIRCUS!!!CIRCUS!!!CIRCUS!!!CIRCUS!!!CIRCUS!!!

2011-10-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA REVIEW
“Ingenious... engaging... a powerful introduction to circus performance then and now.”

My thanks to Eric Midwinter for a fantastic review of Circus Mania in the Autumn issue of The Call Boy - the official journal of the British Music Hall Society. Here’s the review:

“Douglas McPherson’s approach is the ingenious one of visiting differing sorts of circus, interviewing the performers and, by way of context, drawing us into circus history. Thus a visit to the Circus of Horrors and a chat with Hannibal Helmurto, the Pain-Proof Man, leads to a scrutiny of Victorian freak shows and Tom Thumb. It is done enjoyably but not uncritically and comprises a powerful introduction to circus performance then and now. In the case of circus the backstage toughness is professional rather than social. There are few tricks. It is very dangerous. The sword swallower really swallows the sword. Tragically, the day after the author’s interview with Eva Garcia appeared in The Stage she fell to her death in the circus ring. Here the fight is between obsession with the circus dream and daily endurance against the perils.
Tom Major gets an honourable mention and it was said of his son, premier John, that he was the only person ever to run away from a circus to join a bank. But it is the flight to the circus, as this engaging book explains, that leads to the disciplined rather than the happy-go-lucky life. If bankers were half so dedicated to stringent regulation and devoted awareness of public requirement as circus performers then the world economy might be a little brighter.”

The Call Boy is a fantastic resource for fans of variety, music hall and light entertainment and is distributed free to members of the British Music Hall Society. The Society hosts bi-monthly shows, talks and other events and membership is warmly recommended. To join, write to Membership Secretary Howard Lee, Thurston Lodge, Thurston Park, Whitstable, Kent CTE 1RE.

If you’d like a copy of the “Ingenious” and “engaging” Circus Mania, meanwhile, you can save £5 off the retail price by ordering direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the Special Offer price of just £10 postage-free in the UK (£2.75 postage worldwide). Send your cheques to Peter Owen Publishers, 20 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 3QU. Tel: 020 7370 6093.

2011-10-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

JUMBO
- The Greatest Elephant in the World!

I’ve just had a fantastic time reading Jumbo - The Greatest Elephant in the World by Paul Chambers. Jumbo was a literally huge celebrity in the Victorian era, both in England, as the main attraction at London Zoo, and in America, where the 11-foot-tall African elephant became the star of PT Barnum’s Greatest Show On Earth. In fact, so well known was the four-legged colossus that ‘jumbo’ entered the English language as a new word for anything big.

Chambers’ biography of Jumbo is deceptively compact, but it tells a big and compelling story in thrilling detail. The impeccably researched narrative traces Jumbo’s story back as far as Taher Sheriff, the African ‘Aggageer,’ or elephant hunter, who captured Jumbo as a young calf in the Sudan, and includes a bloody first hand description by explorer Samuel White Baker of how Sheriff and his fellow horsemen captured (and killed) their prey.

From there, Chambers offers fascinating insights into Jumbo’s relationship with his life-long keeper Matthew Scott and the many behind-the-scenes shenanigans involving Scott, London Zoo superintendent Abraham Bartlett and the great circus showman PT Barnum. The detailed descriptions of dramatic events, such as the protracted difficulties in removing Jumbo from the zoo, read like a novel and will have you on the edge of your seat as you read.

Sadly, Jumbo came to a tragic end, beneath the wheels of a steam train. But he surely left a bigger mark on the world than any other animal, as evidenced by the way his name lives on in our daily conversation more than a century later. As Chambers says, the next time you see a jumbo jet or eat a jumbo sausage, remember the original Jumbo - the greatest elephant in the world - after which it’s named.

Jumbo (published by Andre Deutsch) is a highly recommended read. But what of today’s circus elephants? Should the big top still have them, or are they cruelly treated? Before you make up your mind, read both sides of the argument in my book Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus. Oh, and there’s even an original ink drawing of Jumbo in Circus Mania by author Douglas McPherson.

Circus Mania by Douglas McPherson retails for £14.99, but you can save £5 by ordering it direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of £10 including postage in the UK (add £2.75 postage for postage worldwide).
Send cheques to:
Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU
Credit card orders can be taken during office hours on 020 7370 6093.

2011-09-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA a GOOD READ!

My thanks to Circus Mania reader Shana Kennedy for posting the following review on www.goodread.com :

‘A decent circus book for us groupies... a quote I particularly connected with: "I realize...the rows of seats behind me are going to remain empty... But as the lights go down it ceases to matter. In a theatre you would feel the emptiness of a poorly attended house sapping the atmosphere. The big top, by contrast, seems to close snugly around us, emphasizing only our proximity to the ring and the impending action."’

If you’re tempted to read some more, save £5 off the retail price by ordering Circus Mania direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of £10 postage free in the UK (£2.75 postage rest of world). Send cheques to:
Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU
Credit card orders during office hours: 020 7370 6093

2011-09-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

MEET THE WOOKEY HOLE WITCH!

THE CIRCUS STAR WHO’LL PUT A SPELL ON YOU!

As the nights draw in and Halloween looms, you may be wondering where to celebrate the time of ghosties, ghoulies, pumpkins, broomsticks, black cats... and witches. Where better than the 50,000-year-old tourist attraction Wookey Hole, where the caves boast their own breed of creepy cave spider... and a real live resident witch?

Luckily, witch in residence Sunny van der Pas is a witch of the friendly, rather than scary variety, and Terrance the spider who hangs from her pointed hat looks like a fake to me - although she assures me the spiders in the caves are real enough.

“I’m not certain, but I’m told they’re the only venomous spiders in England,” says Sunny, who looks pretty fit for her claimed age of 227, “But they’re absolutely beautiful.”

So are the caves, themselves, says Sunny: “Some of the chambers are 100-feet tall. They’re beautifully lit and look like cathedrals. There’s one shaped like a dome, which was created by a whirlpool and could never have been carved by man.”

As well as the caves, Wookey Hole boasts a dinosaur park, a paper museum on the site of Britain’s oldest paper mill, a Victorian penny arcade, a fairy garden and a Mirror Maze. There’s also a circus museum stuffed with showman’s wagons, circus freaks, costumes and memorabilia and, at weekends and during the school holidays, thrice daily circus shows in the Big Top Theatre. The shows are presented by Sunny who, being a witch, naturally casts a lot of spells to make things disappear and appear; and Bippo the clown, who is one of Britain’s most talented up-and-coming performers.

The rest of the cast are drawn from the students of the Wookey Circus School who perform all kinds or gymnastics and aerial feats.

The circus connection isn’t surprising, though, as Wookey Hole is owned by Britain’s most famous living circus man, Gerry Cottle, who bought the attraction after selling his share of the Chinese and Moscow State Circuses. Cottle’s idea at the time was to retire from circus. But, as they said in Cecil B DeMille’s film The Greatest Show On Earth, you can shake the sawdust off your shoes, but you can never shake it out of your heart.

For details of Wookey Hole opening times and bookings at the on-site 58-bedroom hotel, call 01749 672243 or visit www.wookey.co.uk.

If you want the full story of Gerry Cottle’s circus career and how he came to set up the Wookey Circus School... plus the story of how Bippo ran away with the circus as a 9-year-old... buy my book:

CIRCUS MANIA - THE ULTIMATE BOOK FOR ANYONE WHO DREAMED OF RUNNING AWAY WITH THE CIRCUS!

Circus Mania retails at £14.99, but you can save £5 by ordering direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of just £10 postage free.

Send cheques to:

20 Holland Park Avenue

London W11 3QU

For credit card orders phone 020 7373 5628 during office hours.

2011-08-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

CIRCO
A Fantastico DVD!

In Mexico they have a saying: “Through good and bad - the circus forever!” Circo, a fantastic documentary shot and directed by Aaron Schock, shows both the good times and the bad times, while leaving no doubt that the circus will indeed endure forever.
The film, which comes out on DVD on September 12, follows the fortunes of the Gran Circo Mexico, a small family circus touring impoverished rural Mexico. Tino Ponce, the mainstay of the show, was born into the circus tradition and is determined that his young kids will carry on the life of his parents and grandparents. The school age kids, who have never been to school, provide most of his acts, from lion training to aerial silk and contortionism.
But all is not well in the big top. Tino’s wife, a town girl, is unhappy with her children being driven so hard: “You are supposed to give your children everything, but our children give us everything.” Ivonne also resent all the profits from her their hard labour being passed to Tino’s aging parents, who own the circus.
“The circus always comes first, before anything else,” Ivonne moans, while Tino admits “I’m walking a tightrope,” between responsibility to his parents and responsibility to his wife and children.
While the marital tension builds, Schock’s unhurried film shows the harsh reality of circus life: the gritty, debris strewn circus sites “behind the gas station” in villages with the feel of a third world country; the endless travel and constant practise; the mud, dirt, Gypsy camp conditions and lack of basic amenities: at one point, one of Tino’s sons scales a wall and uses a long stick with a hook of copper wire on the end to rig a makeshift electrical supply from a nearby overhead line.
“We’re trapped in our circus world - caged,” comments Ivonne. But, despite the deprivations, those who leave the circus - even Ivonne, in the end - always come back. As Tino states, “My hope is to die here in the circus.”
With an atmospheric soundtrack by alt.country band Calexico, this fantastico film is released on DVD by Network Releasing, price £12.99, and is warmly recommended.
.......................................................................................................
CIRCUS MANIA SPECIAL OFFER!
And don’t forget, if you want to see what goes on behind the scenes of Britain’s circuses, check out my book, Circus Mania! at the special offer price of just £10 including postage. To read about the lives, culture, history, superstitions and secrets of sword swallowers, trapeze stars and tiger trainers, send cheques to:

Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU
And, as we say in the UK, “May all your days be circus days!”

2011-05-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS GIRL NELL GIFFORD
IN PICTURE OF THE YEAR!

If there were an award for the best circus photograph of the year it would definitely go to the shot of Nell Gifford sitting side-saddle on a rearing horse in the May 21 edition of the Daily Telegraph. Circus has never looked more cool!
Take a look at this fantastic shot and Patricia Carswell’s excellent feature on Gifford’s Circus production of War & Peace at the Hay Literary Festival at this link: "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/8523546/Giffords-Circus-Smart-way-to-give-us-a-ring.html".
My thanks, too, to Patricia for quoting me and mentioning Circus Mania! within the piece.
If the magic of Gifford’s Circus fires your imagination, check out Circus Mania! to discover the reality of life, death and danger that faces those who run away with the circus. Buy it on Amazon or direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special price of £10 postage-free (a saving of £5 off the recommended retail price).
Send cheques to:
Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London
W11 3QU

And may all your days be circus days!

2011-04-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

MORE GREAT REVIEWS! “CIRCUS MANIA READS LIKE A NOVEL!” My thanks to writer Lynne Hackles for marking World Circus day by posting a glowing review of Circus Mania on her excellent blog I Should Be Writing. Among other compliments, Lynne said, “Circus Mania is one of those rare non-fiction books that you end up reading as if it were a novel. Great characters and plot and beautifully written descriptions.” You can read Lynne’s full review at www.lynnehackles.blogspot.com My thanks are also due to my local regional daily paper, the Eastern Daily Press for running a fabulous 2-page feature on Circus Mania in the run up to World Circus day last week. Among the EDP’s descriptions of Circus Mania: “Remarkable... captivating... beguiling... a real page-turner of a book that shines a bright light on a hidden world inhabited by an extraordinary cast of colourful characters.” Finally, thanks to David Whitely for inviting me onto his BBC Radio Norfolk breakfast show to talk about Circus Mania on Saturday 16, and, through the wonders of pre-recording, to BBC Radio Essex who had me giving a completely different interview about Circus Mania at exactly the same time. You may be able to listen to both on the BBC iPlayer (if you know how to work it...). Don’t forget, you can buy Circus Mania direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of £10 postage-free in the UK (£2.75 postage worldwide). Send cheques to: Peter Owen Publishers 20 Holland Park Avenue London W11 3GU Or phone 020 7373 5628.

World Circus Day

2011-04-15T04:12:00.000-07:00

WORLD CIRCUS DAY! World Circus Day Saturday April 16, 2011 Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Saturday April 16 is World Circus Day! Organised by the International Circus Federation under the patronage of Princess Stephanie of Monaco, World Circus Day is a global celebration of the glamour, excitement, tradition and spectacle of the sawdust circle - and it’s something EVERYONE can get involved in. Here is the recipe for a perfect World Circus Day: 1/ Google ‘Circus’ and the name of your town or county. Find the circus appearing nearest to you and go along! If you haven’t been for years, you’re guaranteed to enjoy it! / Buy some paper plates and a can of shaving foam. Spray the shaving foam on the plates to make some nice big custard pies, then go into the garden and have a good old custard pie fight! 3/ Get out your face paints and paint clown faces on your kids... and yourself! 4/ If you’ve got any circus skills take your stilts, unicycle or juggling balls out onto the streets and share your passion. If anyone asks you what you’re doing, tell them it’s World Circus Day! 5/ Buy a copy of Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus by Douglas McPherson and read all about the unique lifestyle, traditions, culture, history, superstitions and secrets of the world’s greatest circus entertainers as told in their own words. The Mail on Sunday called Circus Mania “A brilliant account of a vanishing art form.” The Eastern Daily Press called it “Remarkable... captivating... beguiling... a real page turner.” Circus Mania retails at £14.99, but to celebrate World Circus Day you can SAVE £5 by buying it direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of just £10 postage-free in the UK (£2.75 postage worldwide). Send cheques to: Peter Owen Publishers 20 Holland Park Avenue London W11 3QU May all your days be World Circus Days! World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011 World Circus Day April 16, 2011

2011-03-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA USA!
Circus Mania gets American release in May!

If you’re reading this in America, the good news is that Circus Mania is released in America in May through publisher Peter Owen and the Independent Publishing Group (IPG) price $19.95. It can be ordered through all good book shops or direct from www.ipgbook.com (listed under Performing Arts).

A review in the April 1 issue of US book trade magazine Booklist describes Circus Mania! as “Full of stories and anecdotes that give readers a good sense of the thrills and dangers associated with the big top. The book should appeal to circus fans of all ages and levels of interest.”

Since its UK publication in the UK, Circus Mania! has received many great reviews including a full-page 4-star rave review in Britain’s biggest selling Sunday newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, which described it as “A brilliant account of a vanishing art form” and an “Excellent book.”

British circus and fairground newspaper World’s Fair called Circus Mania “A panoramic peek behind the velvet curtain, covering every imaginable aspect of what goes on behind the scenes. An unmissable read.”

Tina Jackson, on the Writers Hub website, wrote, “Like a good old fashioned circus – McPherson’s favourite kind, in the end – the book rollicks along at a cracking pace, delivering a cast of colourful characters, and a parade of stories of the life-is-stranger-than-fiction variety. There are thrills and spills, acts of derring-do, heart-in-mouth moments, and laughs aplenty. The circus deserves this book and, like the circus, McPherson deserves for Circus Mania to reach a very wide and appreciative audience.”

There have also been two 5-star customer reviews on Amazon, with one reader commenting, “I really loved reading this book!”

The inspiration for Circus Mania came in 2003 when theatrical newspaper The Stage asked me to review the 100th anniversary show at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, which is Britain’s oldest building purpose-built for circus. I interviewed aerial silk artiste Eva Garcia... just days before she fell and died during her act.

Dedicated to Eva’s memory, Circus Mania is my behind-the-scenes journey through the circus world in an attempt to discover what makes people like Eva so devoted to the circus life. Along the way, I talk to clowns, trapeze artists, sword swallowers, animal trainers and circus owners about their lives, culture, history, traditions and superstitions.

Among the traditional and contemporary shows and companies described in detail are Circus Mondao (a traditional tent show run by descendents of Britain’s oldest circus family - they’ve been in the business since the days of Astley), Zippos, Great British Circus (a controversial animal show and its daily battle with animal rights protesters and tabloid newspapers), Cirque du Soleil, Cirque de Glace (contemporary ice show), Circus of Horrors (adults only freak show with rock music), Circa (Australia), Circ Panic (Spain), Circus Hilarious and Chinese State Circus.

Among the circus people interviewed in depth are circus bosses Gerry Cottle and Martin Zippo Burton; tiger trainers Martin Lacey Sr and Helyne Edmonds; father and son clowns Clive Webb and Danny Adams; Bippo the Clown - a boy who genuinely ran away with the circus; retired ringmaster George Pinder who tells fabulous stories of tenting in years gone by; and Pain Proof Man Hannibal Helmeurto, who gives a stomach churning account of the training to become a sword swallower.

To illustrate circus’ deep traditions, the contemporary stories are interwoven with the stories of historical figures Philip Astley, Jules Leotard, Joseph Grimaldi, PT Barnum etc. The book has a full-colour photo section plus line drawings (by myself) and I’m pleased to say the publishers have done a wonderful job of designing the book to reflect the contents, by making the contents pages look like a circus program, for example. Although it will also soon be available as an eBook, we wanted the print edition to be a physically nice object to own.

Circus Mania! by Douglas McPherson (IPG/Peter Owen) can be ordered through all good bookshops, quoting the ISBN 9780720613520, or ordered direct from www.ipgbook.com (where it’s listed under Performing Arts).

In the UK or other parts of the world, meanwhile, you can buy Circus Mania direct from Peter Owen Publishers for just £10 postage free in the UK (or £2.50 postage worldwide). Send cheques in UK currency to:

Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU

For credit card sales, more information, or to leave me a message about Circus Mania!, email admin@peterowen.com

May all your days be circus days!

2011-03-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS LIFE REVEALED!
Another 5-star review for Circus Mania!

“Highly revealing” and full of “Fascinating tales and reminiscences.” That’s how well known and respected writer and PR man Tony Byworth describes Circus Mania in a cracking 5-star customer review on Amazon - the second 5-star Amazon review that Circus Mania has received this year. Here’s the full review:

5-stars The circus life revealed, 15 Mar 2011
By Tony Byworth

This review is from: Circus Mania (Paperback) I must confess that my recollections of the circus are slight and my knowledge even more so, but this highly revealing book changed all that, filling in the gaps, restoring memories and providing an encyclopaedic wealth of information.

Author Douglas McPherson similarly lacked circus knowledge but, after being assigned to write a circus review, was fascinated enough to start fully researching the subject - an area of show business that rarely gathers headlines, apart from the occasional outcry by animal rights activists. His study is extensive and covers the widest expanses, from traditional circuses under the big top to theatrical Cique du Soleil, from Britain's Chipperfields, Cottle and Lacey, to Germany's Spiegeltent, America's Barnum & Bailey and China's State Circus. There's also Cirque du Glace, Circus Hilarious, Circus Mondao, Circus of Horrors (no, not the movie but a theatrical touring spectacle with freak show origins) and, even, a circus school (Circus Space) offering a BA degree.

During the course of his research, which stretched over seven years, McPherson visited a vast variety of circuses and interviewed many of their personnel - owners and ringmasters, animal trainers and clowns, trapeze artists and escapologists, building up a close friendship with many of them. In return, all relate fascinating tales and reminiscences, resulting in a greater insight than would have been achieved by the casual interviewer.

Then, at the book's conclusion, a six page Circus Chronology that commences with the Circus Maximus of Roman times and concludes in 2009 when the Great British Circus reintroduced elephants into the ring after a decade's absence.

Once into the book, it's hard not to be carried along by McPherson's very obvious enthusiasm. So, if you ever had thoughts about joining a circus, this book could provide the impetus!

CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS

Thanks for that glowing review, Tony! And if that’s tempted you to check out Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus, just click on the button above right and go straight to Amazon to buy a copy!

You can also order direct, for just £10 including postage, from:
Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU
admin@peterowen.com

CIRCUS MANIA EBOOK! CIRCUS MANIA EBOOK! CIRCUS MANIA EBOOK!

And with World Circus Day coming up next month on April 16, the good news is that Circus Mania will be among the first batch of Peter Owen books to be launched as an eBook. Stay tuned for further news! Until then, may all your days be circus days!

CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS CIRCUS

2011-02-14T14:34:00.001-08:00

AN AMAZE-ZON REVIEW!
Circus Mania gets Five Stars on Amazon!

The best critics are the book-reading public, so my thanks go to Catherine Howard for posting the following 5-Star customer review of Circus Mania on Amazon:

Running Away With The Circus!
Review of Circus Mania by Catherine Howard - 5-stars (Amazon)

I really loved this book. The author obviously loves his subject. He has an easy to read, relaxed style and has gone to a lot of trouble to speak to all the right people. Every page simply buzzes with memorable characters and quotes. There are so many different stories here, some funny, some sad, all fascinating. Every page was full of interest. It made me want to rush out and see another circus, straightaway. What I liked the most was the fact that the author doesn't preach. This is especially noticeable when he looks at animals in circuses. He handles this emotive subject brilliantly, managing to give both sides of the argument. I was left with the rather comforting feeling that the circus is here to stay. To quote the last line of this really excellent book - `Circus is very much alive and juggling.'

Thanks again to Catherine for that review. If you’re tempted to read Circus Mania just click on the link to Amazon above right. Or buy it direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of £10 inc postage. Send cheques to Peter Owen Publishers, 20 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 3QU.

2011-02-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

THE LION KING
A Life With Lions

Martin Lacey’s Great British Circus was one of the reasons I wrote Circus Mania. I’d already become fascinated with the daredevil lives of circus performers and had written several articles on the subject. But the shows I’d seen at that point had all be contemporary shows in theatres - a sanitised version of the art form that often preferred the media-friendly name ’cirque’ and which was safely removed from its red-blooded roots amid the thundering hooves and flying sawdust of Astley’s first circus in the grittier, gutsier age of the late 18th century.

Then, in the spring of 2009, the news was suddenly full of the Great British Circus, which had brought elephants back to a British circus ring for the first time in a decade. Most of the coverage was negative, focusing on the predictable outrage of animal rights protesters. But, when I opened the Daily Mail it wasn’t the words that caught my eye, but a stunning picture of Sonja, a huge, be-tusked African elephant being led into the GBC’s sawdust circle.
The elephant, the golden oasis of sawdust, the towering interior of the big top... that picture called to me. ’If you want to understand circus,’ that picture said - and at that point I sorely did want to understand it - ’If you want to see circus in its purest form and see where it came from, then this is where you will find it.’

I went along, and not without trepidation, because like so many other people of my generation I’d been brought up to believe that the idea of performing animals was cruel and distasteful. But I went along and what I saw - and what I subsequently leaned by interviewing half a dozen trainers, former trainers and showmen, both at the Great British Circus and elsewhere - changed my mind about the animal question. It also convinced me that there was a book to be written about this most elemental form of entertainment.

I went on to write about many other circuses, of course: the spectacular ice show of Cirque de Glace, the modern day freak show of the Circus of Horrors, the traditional acrobatics of the Chinese State Circus and, of course, the international phenomenon of Cirque du Soleil. But, throughout the writing of Circus Mania, the memory of my visit to the Great British Circus remained my touch stone - a reminder of what a ‘real’ circus was and a living glimpse into the art form’s origins.

Interestingly, whenever I’ve talked about or been interviewed about Circus Mania it’s always the animals people remember fondly, and it was with reference to the elephants - a supportive, sympathetic and nostalgic reference - that Roger Lewis opened his full-page review of Circus Mania in the Mail on Sunday, in which he described Circus Mania as “a brilliant account of a vanishing art form.” (Scroll down the blog to read the full review)

The highlight of that visit to the Great British Circus was watching Lacey in the big cage with his magnificent and beautiful tigers. Mesmerising is the only word to describe his relaxed and gentle interaction with his animals.

So it was great to learn that Martin Lacey has now written a book of his own. My Life With Lions is an apt title for his delightful photo-led memoir, as few can have enjoyed such an intimate relationship with big cats as Lacey and his family, his sons Alex and Martin Jr being big name lion trainers on the continent, and his partner Helyne Edmonds being currently Britain’s only lady tiger trainer.

The concise text, in which Martin shared his stories in conversation with Jeff Link, takes us swiftly through Lacey’s 40-year career in zoos and circuses, providing fascinating insights into the relationship between animal and trainer and revealing many tricks of his trade.
Among the many anecdotes are the time Lacey persuaded a lion to lay down with a lamb for an advert, and the time two cops mistakenly burst into his hotel room only to find a fully grown lion sleeping in the next bed to Lacey.

There’s even a romance worthy of a Hollywood movie, as we hear how Lacey’s partner Helyne Edmonds ran away with the circus, fell in love with the boss and - “Armed with not so much as a rolled up newspaper” - risked her life to save him from a mauling by two tigers.
The best part of the book is an extensive archive of 140 full-page photos of Lacey and family with many of the animals they have worked with over the years, not just lions, but polar bears, zebra, camels, elephants and even a rhino.

The sight of Lacey and family cosied up with their big cats, as if these born killers were as tame as pampered housecats, makes My Life With Lions an absolute treat.
Published by Linctrek (ISBN 978 1 872904 47 4) the price tag is £25 but I believe the Great British Circus is offering a special offer price if you buy their latest DVD at the same time. To place an order, email ringmaster@greatbritishcircus.co.uk . Better still, if the Great British Circus pitches its big top in your neck of the woods, go along to the show and pick up a copy in person.

2011-01-04T10:06:00.000-08:00

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH... IN A BOOK!

For a great start to the New Year, my thanks are due to showman’s newspaper World’s Fair for a fantastic review of Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus! Here’s what they wrote:

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH... IN A BOOK!

The graft and passion of the circus industry won’t need highlighting to regular World’s Fair readers but those hungry for an all access pass into this extraordinary world should scribble Circus Mania at the top of their wishlist.
Circus couldn’t be a more applicable subject for Douglas McPherson’s first book as he hops from one chapter to the next like a constant flow of acts in a circus programme, kicking into touch any notion of a dying art form with every page.

With such a dense and rich history to pick from, McPherson delivers a concise yet elaborate summary of the circus industry featuring accurate accounts from those who have built their lives around the sawdust circle.

For all the childlike fantasy surrounding the idea of running away with the circus, just how arduous that life can be is laid out early on with the meeting of Eva Garcia, a wirewalker-cum-aerial silk performer who finishes with her boyfriend of nine years to travel the globe.

“It’s very tough, mentally and physically,” she reveals, “but I couldn’t give up my life, I’m still too young.” The following Thursday, Eva plummets 30ft to her death at Great Yarmouth’s Hippodrome.

Much of Circus Mania serves as a panoramic peek behind the velvet curtain, covering every imaginable aspect of what goes on behind the scenes. The incredible feats achieved by the acts during showtime could be considered a mre sideshow when viewed alongside the indomitable exuberance of Circus Hilarious’ Clive Webb (post quadruple heart bypass) or the freakish idiocy only a Circus of Horrors audition call could conjure.

BBC’s Big Top, Cirque du Soleil and the unavoidable matter of animal welfare are also explored. During a section surrounding Martin Lacey’s Great British Circus, McPherson bemoans the misunderstanding of persistent campaigners, notably detailing the ‘hypnotic grace’ with which Lacey’s elephants parade and how ‘it’s hard not to believe the tigers enjoy themselves.’

The otherworldly expedition, Douglas McPherson’s in-depth knowledge and obvious enthusiasm makes Circus Mania an unmissable read for anyone with the slightest tinge of circus curiosity.
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CIRCUS MANIA

If that review makes you want to read Circus Mania, you can order it direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special price of £10 including post and packing. Simply send a cheque to Peter Owen Publishers, 20 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 3QU.

WORLD’S FAIR

You may also like to consider a subscription to World’s Fair, the national weekly newspaper of the fairground and circus industry. It’s a great read and great to look at, stuffed as it is with full colour pictures of fairground rides, circuses, showman’s wagons and historic lorries and buses. UK subscriptions are £48 per year (£25 for six months) and can be ordered on 0161 683 8006. They’ll also be happy to supply back issues.

2010-12-20T13:11:00.000-08:00

ROLL UP, ROLL UP!
THE CIRCUS COMES TO PANTOLAND!

What could be more fun this Christmas - a pantomime or a trip to the circus? At the Norwich Theatre Royal there’s no need to choose between the two, thanks to an inspired decision to set this year‘s Jack & The Beanstalk in a travelling circus.

Yep, Jack (played by Hollyoaks heartthrob Stephen Uppal) has been transformed into the star of the Trott Family Circus, which even boasts a pantomime elephant instead of the traditional pantomime horse.

With scenes set inside the big top and during the circus parade through the panto village of Norwichvale, as well as scenes around the Trott Family caravans, the circus costumes and scenery give the production a huge infusion of life and colour.

Genuine circus thrills come from rising star Valerie Murzak (one of the stars of my book Circus Mania) who gets some of the biggest audience reactions of the night for her glamorous and dramatic performance on aerial silk - as well as standing on her hands and spinning a hula-hoop around her ankle.

Not to be out-done, writer and director Richard Gauntlett, who plays the Dame, turns in a slick plate-spinning routine, while a stilt-walker and dancing clowns add to the carnival atmosphere of the crowd scenes.

Other visual treats come in the portrayal of the Giant, represented by an enormous foot and hand descending from the proscenium arch.
Comic Andre Vincent gets the biggest laugh of the night when the giant is slain. “Give him a big hand!” says Vincent, as an enormous forearm flops from the wings and flattens the funny man.

This is Gauntlett’s tenth panto at Norwich and, thanks to a slick, fast-paced show - plus the magic of the circus - it’s undoubtedly his best yet.

Jack & The Beanstalk runs until Jan 16. Box Office: 01603 630000.

If you want to learn more about aerial silk star Valerie Murzak and her anglo-Russian circus family, meanwhile, look no further than Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus. Just click up the button above right for speedy delivery from those nice people at Amazon.

2010-12-07T10:04:00.000-08:00

CIRCUS MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You know your life’s a circus when your first Christmas card of the year comes from Gerry Cottle, but that was the case here at Circus Mania towers!

It’s a shame I live on the other side of our snowbound country as Gerry’s Christmas show at his famous Wooky Hole Caves sounds like the perfect alternative to panto.
50 Acts In 50 Minutes does exactly what it says and stars the kids of Gerry’s Wooky Circus School alongside circus pros Bippo the clown and his acrobatic fiance Lucy Ladbrooke. If you’re in the west of England hurry along to see them before the final show on Jan 3.

Here in East Anglia, meanwhile, there’s a panto theme - Oh yes there is! - to the Christmas show at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, so don’t miss your fix of circus thrills and spills, between Dec 11 and Jan 3.

Finally, are you stuck for Christmas presents? Why not treat your friends to a copy of Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus, which the Mail on Sunday called “A brilliant account of a vanishing art form”?

Click the link to Amazon above right for speedy delivery complete with gift-wrapping. Or why not buy a copy for ALL your friends? Buy six or more and you’ll qualify for wholesale prices. Just call Michael O’Connell at Peter Owen Publishers on 020 7373 5628.

2010-11-19T08:57:00.000-08:00

MURDER AT THE CIRCUS Part 3
by Douglas McPherson

A serial killer is stalking the circus and an arsonist is on the loose. Can the four fiesty ladies of the Blue Rinse Brigade catch the killer? Find out in the final part of my three-part comedy crime caper which first appeared in My Weekly. (If you missed Parts 1 & 2, just scroll down the blog and find them below).

Big Ted Telford came running across the green with the two constables Mervyn had left on duty while he went back to the station to interview Tommy the Clown.
"Shall we call the fire brigade?" asked one of the officers, waving aside the smoke.
"Bit late for that," said Evelyn as she set a fire extinguisher down on the grass. "But nice of you to stroll over and say hello."
"If it hadn’t been for these ladies, I’d have been burnt alive," said the girl who had been serving in the hotdog wagon.
Ted gazed at the badly blackened back of the otherwise intact wagon and said, "If the fire had reached those gas cylinders it would have wiped out half the circus."
"I think that was the intention," said Pam. She pointed her walking stick at a paraffin can casually discarded next to the remains of some hay bales that had formed the seat of the fire. "This was deliberate."
A little way off, Jane used a pair of eyebrow tweezers to pick up a matchbox. "It looks like the arsonist went this way."
"Heading for the caravans," Evelyn deduced. "I reckon whoever sawed through Tamsin’s tight-wire realised their plan had been foiled and stayed around to wreck more havoc."
"Which means they could strike again," Maude said, darkly.
"Agreed," said Evelyn. Turning to Ted, she asked, "Are there any particularly dangerous stunts in the second half of the show?"
"Well, there’s the knife-throwing, Marko catching a bullet in his teeth, Luigi juggling with chainsaws... nothing out of the ordinary."
"You’d better warn the performers to be on their guard for another attack," said Evelyn. "Maude, you’re needed as the plant for Tony’s gorilla routine, so you can keep an eye on things ringside. Pam, cover the backstage area. Jane and I will search around the lorries and caravans for clues to where our saboteur may be hiding.
"As for you two," the former Chief Inspector pointed at the constables, "Guard the main entrance to the big top - and if anything happens, try to react a bit quicker this time."
"Yes ma’am!" One of the officers saluted.
........................................
"The killer must be someone who knows their way around the circus," said Evelyn, as she and Jane perused the vehicles that encircled the big top. "Always watching and able to slip away unseen. But where can they be hiding?"
"Over here!" Jane hissed, suddenly. She pointed to a wet handprint on a caravan door and mouthed: "Paraffin!"
They checked the windows, but the blinds were down.
"Shall we call for back up?" Jane whispered.
"From Pinky and Perky back there?" Evelyn scorned. "I think we can handle this. Cover me."
Jane drew her miniature pistol and Evelyn rapped loudly on the door. "Open up! We‘ve got you surrounded!"
There was no sound from inside the caravan.
"Looks like nobody’s home," said Evelyn, "Shall we take a look inside?"
"Allow me," said Jane. Taking a hairclip from her blue rinsed ‘do, the former spy poked it into the lock and sprung the simple mechanism.
Inside, they found just the normal signs of recent habitation: the remains of a meal on the worktop, some clothes on the bed.
"Well, there’s no sign of... Eeeek!"
Having idly opened a wardrobe door, Jane jumped back as a young man fell forward and crashed full length on the floor.
"Is he...?" Jane asked shakily.
Evelyn nodded grimly and pointed to a flash of glittery nylon wound tightly around the man’s neck: "Strangled with a pair of circus tights."
"But who is he, and who’d want to kill him?"
Evelyn noticed a brightly illustrated circus poster on the wall and said, "My guess is someone wanted to steal his identity."
..........................................
The backstage area was hectic, with brightly costumed performers coming and going from the ring.
"Where’s the Masked Assassin?" Helga shouted above the music coming through the sparkly curtain.
"The Masked Assassin?" Pam asked, dubiously.
"He shoots the bullet I catch in my mouth," explained Marko the Magician, who was checking the mechanism of a powerful rifle.
"That doesn’t look like a fake gun," Pam observed.
"It’s real!" Marko said proudly. "The trick is he aims past my head, at a sandbag concealed in the wings, and I produce another bullet from under my tongue."
He grinned, and was suddenly holding a bullet between his teeth.
"He fires that rifle straight past you?" Pam marvelled. "You must trust him like a brother."
"He is my brother," said Marko.
At that moment, the rear tent flap was thrust aside by a sinister looking figure, clad in a long black trench coat and slouch hat. His ‘face’ was a featureless black satin mask.
"And about time," snapped Helga.
Ignoring the ring-mistress, the Assassin strode towards Marko and reached out with leather gloved hands to take the rifle.
"Don’t give it to him!" Evelyn shouted, as she and Jane burst into the tent.
As the Assassin spun around in surprise, Jane covered him with her pistol and Evelyn yelled, "Grab him Chewbacca!"
Still dressed in his gorilla suit, Tony wrapped his arms around the Assassin from behind.
"Get your paws off me!" came a muffled hiss from behind the mask. But although the trench-coated figure squirmed and struggled, the self-defence instructor’s grip was unbreakable.
"Now let‘s see who the circus murderer really is," said Evelyn.
Tugging off the Assassin’s hat and mask, Evelyn stepped back in surprise as she revealed the red with rage face of a woman in her 60s.
"Cora!" Ted exclaimed. "I thought you’d joined Zippos!"
"What as?" Cora snarled, "A 65-year-old trapeze artist? Not that you cared what happened to me as long as I was out of the way and you could shack up with this harlot!"
"How dare you!" exclaimed Helga.
"And how dare the lot of you steal my circus!"
"It’s my circus," Ted corrected.
"What do you know about circuses?" Cora raged. "It might have your name on it, Elvis, but it should bear the name of this country’s finest circus family, The Flying Flynns!"
"You had a generous divorce settlement," Ted mumbled.
"But where’s my brother?" Marko asked, confused.
"Gone to that great curtain call in the sky!" Cora spat unrepentantly. "Just as I’d have picked off the rest of you, one by one, if it wasn’t for these geriatric crime-busters!"
"You killed my brother?" Marko stammered. Suddenly he began stuffing bullets in his rifle. "Then I’ll kill you!"
"Stop him!" Evelyn commanded. "The law will take care of Cora."
As Helga and Tamsin tried to wrest the rifle from Marko, it went off and shot a hole in the canvas roof.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Cora stamped on Tony’s foot and elbowed herself out of his embrace.
"Sorry I can’t stick around for the rest of the show," she said, "But I promise I’ll be back!"
"You’re not going anywhere!" said Ted.
The grey-haired Teddy Boy grabbed the lapel of his ex-wife’s coat. But with an acrobat’s ease, Cora slipped out of the coat and left him holding the empty garment.
Underneath, she was wearing her old trapeze costume.
"Yes, it still fits!" Cora crowed. "And I can still do this!"
With a high kick worthy of a can-can dancer, Cora booted the pistol out of Jane’s hand. It went off with a loud bang and shot another hole through the roof.
Turning on her heel, Cora darted through the sparkly curtain towards the ring.
"After her, Galen!" said Evelyn.
In the spotlight, Luigi almost dropped the dumbbell he was holding, but the audience cheered as Cora ran across the ring chased by a gorilla.
Evelyn pulled a whistle from her bag and blew it loudly, causing the two constables to join the affray and try to block Cora‘s escape.
Around the edge of the ring were four metal pillars that held the tent up. Each was made from criss-crossed steel, like a crane.
Nimbly evading the police, Cora dashed towards one of the pillars and began climbing it, hand over hand.
Tony, in his gorilla costume, began scaling it behind her.
"He’s gaining on her!" Jane cheered.
Just out of Tony‘s reach, Cora came to a rope coiled around the pillar. The audience let out an admiring "Oooooh!" as she uncoiled the rope and swung diagonally across the ring.
There was applause as she leapt off the rope and landed with a loud clang on another pillar.
"Follow that, monkey boy!" Cora taunted.
As the rope swung back, Tony made a grab for it, missed and lost his footing. The crowd gasped as he hugged the pillar for dear life.
Cora, meanwhile continued climbing, past the spotlights into the murky heights of the roof.
"Where’s she going?" asked Jane.
Evelyn shaded her eyes against the spotlights and made out a faint ring of light around the top of the pillar where it poked through the canvas into the evening sky.
"She’s going onto the roof!" Evelyn shouted. "Everyone outside!"
Evelyn, Pam and Jane rushed towards the tent flaps as fast as their joints - collective age 236 - would carry them.
Backing against a caravan, they and the rest of the cast squinted up at the huge dome of the big top, which was silhouetted like a mountain against the sunset.
"There she is!" said Pam, as a tiny figured shinned up one of the four columns that poked through the roof of the tent, each topped with a flag.
"And there she goes!" said Evelyn, as the silhouetted figure disappeared over the central ridge.
"I’ll get her!" Helga sprinted off around the perimeter of the tent.
"I‘ll come with you!" said Tamsin.
"Me too!" said Ted.
In the meantime, a second, hairier silhouette emerged on the roof.
"It’s Tony!" Jane cheered.
On the sunny side of the big top, Cora sat on the canvas and whooshed down the steeply sloped roof as if on a toboggan.
At the bottom of the slope, she rolled athletically over the edge and dropped the final six feet, feet first into a clown car waiting below.
As Cora started the car, the noise was drowned by a protracted "Waaaaaaagh!" as a gorilla came slithering and rolling down the slope of the tent in a much less graceful manner.
Unprepared for the drop at the bottom, Tony flew straight off the edge and landed face first in a heap of straw that had recently been mucked out of the horses’ paddock.
Having no idea what was happening on the other side of the tent, Jane suddenly said, "There she is!"
As the Blue Rinse Brigade watched powerlessly, Cora came into view around the edge of the big top, driving a spluttering and bouncing clown car that sporadically let out a fire cracker bang from the exhaust pipe, accompanied by several clangs as various doors and mudguards fell off onto the grass.
Despite its condition, the car was moving remarkably quickly.
As it bumped away, heading for the edge of the green, it was followed by a straw-covered gorilla on a wobbly bicycle, which was in turn being chased by the leggy shapes of Helga and Tamsin in their circus tights.
A grey-haired aging Teddy Boy followed them, angrily shaking his fists, and two policemen brought up the rear, waving their truncheons.
"If only Mervyn was here to see this," Evelyn breathed.
"I’ve just called him," boomed Maude, who had finally emerged from the tent. "By the way, do you think she’s forgotten this?"
Maude was holding a remote control handset with a long, floppy aerial. She began thumbing the controls and the clown car abruptly veered away from the edge of the green.
For a moment, the car appeared to be on a collision course with the box office wagon, then it swerved away once more.
"Ah, I’m getting the hang of it now," said Maude.
As Cora wrestled uselessly with the steering wheel, and Tony and the other pursuers tried to keep up with the constant changes of direction, the little car settled into a wide arc that brought it trundling back the big top.
With a final shudder and bang, the brightly coloured vehicle came to an obedient halt right in front of the four ladies of the Blue Rinse Brigade.
"Nice driving," said Pam, clapping Maude on the back.
"It seems all those Sunday mornings playing with my great-granddaughter’s boats in the park finally paid off," Maude smiled.
"Give me that!" Cora made a grab for the handset, but Jane levelled her pistol and stopped the trapeze artist in her tracks with a stern, "Not this time."
"That was quite a performance," said Evelyn, "But you can save your encore for the judge."
............................................

After the formalities had been completed at the police station, Ted invited everyone back to the big top for a much needed drink.
Evelyn watched fondly as Tamsin threw her arms around Tommy the Clown, who had been released without charge.
"I tried to tell them I wasn’t doing a runner," he explained. "I was chasing a suspicious looking woman dressed as a fortune teller. But you know what the Old Bill’s like - they didn’t believe a word I said."
Mervyn blushed and cleared his throat, awkwardly. "Well you must admit, sir, it seemed an unlikely story at the time."
Ted clinked his glass with Helga and said, "I can’t believe Cora went so psycho... although she was always a bit fiery."
Helga slipped her arm around the showman’s waist and said, huskily, "I thought that’s how you like your women."
Noticing Tony glancing wistfully from Tamsin to Helga, Evelyn said, "Well, Kong, you may not have got the girl, but I’m sure that after your performance today there’s a job for you on the circus anytime you want it."
"I‘ve had enough monkey business for one lifetime..." Tony began.
But the electric blue sleeve of a Teddy Boy jacket was suddenly draped around his shoulders.
"I’ve been thinking," Ted began, "We should recreate that chase every night. The audience would love it...!"
As Ted moved away, with an arm each around Tony and Helga, making plans for the show, Mervyn sidled up to Evelyn, Jane, Pam and Maude with a sheepish expression on his face.
Evelyn gave her son-in-law a triumphant look and said, "Have you come to apologise for once again doubting our ability to assist in the fight against crime?"
"Well, the thing is," Mervyn began, "I thought Cora would turn out to be responsible for those cat burglaries the circus was accused of. But it seems I was wrong again. So I was wondering..."
Evelyn exchanged a look with her friends and said, "It sounds to me like another case for the Blue Rinse Brigade."
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SPECIAL OFFER
Save £4.99 by ordering Douglas McPherson’s book Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus at the special offer price of £10 inc p&p. Send a cheque or postal order to Peter Owen Publishers, 20 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 3QU.

2010-11-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

MURDER IN THE CIRCUS Part 2
by Douglas McPherson

A clown has met a sticky end and a serial killer is stalking the circus. In the second part of this comedy crime caper, which first appeared in My Weekly, can former police chief Evelyn and her doughty friends in the Blue Rinse Brigade catch the villain and save the day? (If you missed Part One, scroll down to find it below)

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The drums rolled, the music struck up and spotlights spun around the inside of the big top as six leggy dancing girls, clad in feathers and sequins, skipped into the circus ring for the opening spectacle.
While the dancers flashed their toothy grins, Luigi the strongman stood in the spotlight and ripped a telephone directory in half.
Backstage, there was just as much of a performance in progress.
Amid the jostling circus stars waiting to take their turn in the ring, former police chief Evelyn, retired pathologist Pam, former spy Jane, wartime codebreaker Maude and self-defence instructor Tony examined the split in the tight-wire used by Evelyn’s granddaughter, Tamsin.
"That saw cut looks like the work of someone who knew what they were doing," said Pam. "My guess is it would have only broke when Tamsin was half way across."
"Sabotage!" said Helga, an Amazonian blonde dressed in the red tailcoat, top hat and black tights of a ring-mistress.
"This isn’t sabotage," Evelyn declared, "It’s attempted murder."
"But who would do such a thing?" The gravel-voiced speaker was the aptly named Big Ted Telford, the circus owner. He was a big, grizzled man with a grey quiff, wearing an electric blue Teddy Boy jacket with a black velvet lapel.
"It was probably the same person who dropped a kitbag of cement on Rory the Clown, earlier," said Evelyn.
"Then that proves Tommy wasn‘t the murderer," said Tamsin, who was wearing a skimpy, yellow sequined costume, ready for the ring. "He might have fallen out with Rory, but he’d never do anything to harm me."
"Who else had access to your equipment?" asked Evelyn.
"It could have been anyone on the show," Tamsin shrugged. "I just left it here with all the other props."
As if to confirm the constant to-ing and fro-ing through the backstage area, the music grew briefly louder as Luigi’s muscle-bound torso emerged through the sparkly curtain from the ring. Two evening-suited magicians ducked past him to take their turn in the spotlight.
"It must be the Varneys!" Helga said, fiercely. "Messing around with our equipment so we start blaming each other."
"The Varneys?" Jane enquired.
"A rival circus," Ted explained. "They’re in the next town and they’re always trying to spoil our business."
He took the half-sawn-through tight-wire from Evelyn’s gloved hands. "But I can’t believe even the Varneys would stoop to this."
"I wouldn’t put it past them," Helga said darkly.
"Either that or it was someone closer to home," said Evelyn.
"More to the point," Helga addressed Tamsin, "Have you got another wire?"
"In my caravan."
"Then go and get it," Helga snapped. "The show must go on, and you’re on after me."
"Are you sure you’ll be alright up there after the shock you’ve had?" Evelyn asked her granddaughter.
Tamsin hesitated, her eyes wide with fear. But Ted said, "Helga’s right. We’ve already lost the clowns, we can’t afford to drop another act from the show."
"Don’t worry," Tamsin reassured her grandmother, "I’ll be alright."
"That‘s my girl," Evelyn said proudly. "As you can see, Pam, a stiff upper lip runs in the family."
As Tamsin hurried off, Evelyn turned to Ted.
"If you’re running short of performers, Mr Telford, I may be able to help you."
Ted gave her a dubious look. "What do you do, ride a unicycle?"
"We form a human pyramid," boomed the 91-year-old Maude, straight-faced, from where she was sitting on a plastic chair nearby.
"Not us!" Evelyn said, hastily. "Tony here is the funniest clown since Charlie Cairoli."
Tony dropped his candyfloss and turned to Evelyn with his mouth hanging open in disbelief.
"See what I mean?" said Evelyn, "Perfect comic timing! If you’ve got a spare costume he can start straightaway."
"Now hang on a -"
Before Tony could complete the sentence, Evelyn said, "This is no time for false modesty, Coco. The circus is in trouble and we must all rise to the occasion."
Ted didn’t look convinced but said, "I suppose I could try you out with the old escaped gorilla routine."
"The old escaped...?"
Evelyn put her heel onto Tony’s trainer and sank her weight onto it, causing him to whoop like an ape: "Oow, oow, oow, oow!"
"The escaped gorilla routine is his speciality," Evelyn smiled.
"Oh, I saw that at Bertram Mills in the 30s," Maude put in, brightly. "I could be a plant in the audience and you can pretend to steal my handbag."
"Perfect!" said Evelyn
"Alright then," said Ted. "You can have Rory’s gorilla suit and I’ll put you on in the second half. Helga can be the straight woman and you can work out the details between you in the interval."
Helga rolled her eyes and grumbled, "As if I’m not doing enough in the show with the hula hoops and the sword-swallowing!"
"That’s because you’re the star," Ted mollified her. "The public can’t see enough of you."
Tony, meanwhile, suddenly looked a little keener at the prospect of teaming up with Helga. She was quite a looker, even if her face was far from friendly.
"By the way," he asked, "What happened to your last clown?"
"Oh, didn’t anyone tell you?" Pam said breezily. "He was murdered."
.......................................

As the music from the big top wafted on the balmy evening air, Big Ted ducked under the police tape that surrounded Rory the Clown’s caravan.
Evelyn followed him, a little more stiffly. As she straightened up, she took a closer look at the circus boss.
"Didn’t you used to be a singer?"
The grey-quiffed showman smiled for the first time since she had met him.
"Big Ted & The Teddy Boys," he confirmed. "We had a few hits in the 60s... although everyone mixes us up with Showaddywaddy."
"What made you run away with the circus?"
"Blame my ex-wife. She was a trapeze artist. The rock’n’roll was drying up a bit, so I thought I’d give it a go. As it turned out, the circus thrived but the marriage didn’t."
"And you got custody of the big top?" Evelyn surmised.
Ted nodded. "Cora didn’t think I’d be able to make a go of it without her, but I leave a lot of the day-to-day management to Helga. She cracks the whip a bit with the performers, but she knows the business inside out."
Following Evelyn and Ted past the lorries and throbbing generators that circled the big top, Jane slowed Tony down so she could whisper to him without being overheard.
"It’s what we call a honey trap - and you’re the honey. Use your charm to get as pally with Helga as you can. Find out all the show‘s secrets, one artiste to another. Think you can handle it?"
Tony thought of Helga‘s statuesque figure and said, "I‘m starting to look forward to it."
Ted let them into Rory’s caravan and said, "The police have taken a lot of his personal things away, but luckily they left his costumes."
Ted held the furry gorilla suit up to Tony and looked a little misty eyed as he said, "Rory would have wanted it to go to a good home.
"You‘ll need this, too." Ted shoved an outsize handbag into Tony’s arms and said, "The washing line’s inside."
"Washing line...?" Tony was baffled.
"For when you rummage through the contents."
Ted reached into the bag and pulled out a pair of polka dot bloomers that would have fitted an elephant. They were attached to a washing line with a pair of stripy socks, an enormous bra and a whole series of other comedy underwear hanging from it.
"Are you sure you’ve done this before?" Ted frowned.
"He’s just a little rusty," Evelyn cut in. "He spent the last two years on the Chinese State Circus and they speak a completely different language."
Turning to Tony, she said, "Why don’t you put it on outside. You’ll have more room to practise your monkey moves."
When Tony was gone, Evelyn gazed around the interior of the caravan, looking for insights into the life of the man who had lived there.
"What was Rory like?" she asked, casually.
Ted smiled, fondly. "Trouble Brothers was about right. They were a right pair of tearaways, Rory and Tommy both. But he was a good lad. It was never more than youthful pranks."
"What sort of pranks?" asked Evelyn
"Well, like I said, there’s always been a bit of antagonism between us and the Varneys - papering over each other’s posters and things like that. If ever anything like that was going on you can bet Tommy or Rory were involved."
With a chuckle, Ted added, "We’ve had a few jealous husbands looking for them as well. Rory in particular was a bit of a ladies man."
Evelyn and Jane exchanged a look. Evelyn said, "Were they ever in more serious trouble? Anything the police might be interested in?"
Ted looked shifty. "What makes you ask that?"
"I just wondered if there was anything Tommy wouldn’t have wanted to be questioned about? Anything, other than the obvious, that may have made him flee the scene of the crime?"
Ted glanced from Evelyn to Jane, then admitted, "We had the Old Bill sniffing around recently. There were some cat burglaries in the last town and some bright spark had the idea it might have been circus performers. You know, people good with heights and ropes.
"But I can’t believe Rory and Tommy would be involved in anything like that. I put it down to a malicious tip-off by someone trying to blacken our name."
"The Varneys?" Evelyn guessed.
Ted nodded. "Although the bad blood was really between the Varneys and my ex-wife’s family, the Flynns - two old circus families who’ve been at each other’s throats since the 20s. Since I split with Cora I thought all the trouble had died down."
"How long have you been divorced?" asked Jane.
"A year ago today. This would have been our 30th anniversary."
Evelyn‘s eyebrows shot up. "What went wrong after all those years?"
Ted looked sheepishly down at his blue suede shoes. "Er, that was when Helga and I discovered our love for each other."
At that moment, the James Bond signature tune filled the caravan. Jane pulled out her iPhone and went outside to take the call.
"I think the tension is starting to take its toll on the performers," boomed Maude, who was stationed backstage. "The Hungarian tumblers have just come out of the ring arguing furiously with each other."
"What about?"
"No idea," Maude said dryly, "Hungarian isn’t one of the six languages I speak.
"But we did notice Marko the Magician exchanging dark whispers with his assistant. Pam’s followed them to see if she can earwig anything pertinent to the investigation."
"Good move," said Jane.
As Jane put her phone away, Evelyn came out of the caravan and cast a critical eye over the six-foot gorilla cavorting rather unconvincingly nearby.
"Can’t you act a bit more ape-like?" Evelyn asked.
His voice muffled by his mask, Tony said, "I feel like a narner, to be honest."
"Well that‘s a start," said Jane. Reaching into her handbag, she offered him the banana she’d been saving as a snack.
.............................................
Bang! Bang! Bang! As Ted locked Rory’s caravan, three loud reports cut through the music coming from the big top.
"Gunshots!" Jane drew her pistol, ready for action.
"I don’t suppose it’s part of the show?" Evelyn asked, without much hope.
"Not as far as I know," said Ted.
As the foursome hurried towards the backstage area, the source of the bangs suddenly became clear.
A spluttering, backfiring vintage car was racing around the perimeter of the tent and heading straight for them. It had an open top, brightly coloured paintwork... and no driver!
"Evasive action!" Evelyn commanded.
As she spoke, the rickety little car veered to one side of its own accord, crashed through the police tape and came to a halt with a clang against the corner of Rory’s caravan.
Luigi the strongman came running around the tent behind the car. He was holding a remote control handset with a long, floppy aerial.
"Sorry boss!" he panted. "I thought we could still use-a the clown car without-a the clowns."
"Not until you’ve had more practise," Ted said darkly. "We’ve had enough fatalities for one day."
"Luigi!" snapped Helga, running up behind the muscleman, "Put that car back where you found it!"
Luigi fiddled with the remote control and the little car backfired as it reversed away from the caravan, just missing one of the guy ropes that held up the big top.
"Give that to me!" Helga snatched the handset from the muscleman’s grip. "Just drive it normally, before you cause any more damage."
As Luigi got into the car, muttering like a scolded child, Helga pointed her whip at Tony and said, "As for you, Cheetah, we’ve got fifteen minutes to work out an act. Quick march!"
As Helga stalked off, with Tony lumbering behind her in his gorilla suit, Ted let out a loving sigh. "I love it when she takes charge."
............................................
While Helga put Tony through his paces, Evelyn, Pam, Jane and Maude convened for interval teas at a table near the hotdog wagon.
"Unfortunately they don’t sell biscuits," said Evelyn as she set down the tray of plastic cups.
Like a conjurer, Maude reached into her bag and produced a packet of Hobnobs.
"Never go on a mission unprepared," she intoned.
As all hands reached for a sugary fix, Evelyn called the meeting to order.
"So what have we got?"
"If Marko the Magician can be believed, Helga has to be among the suspects," said Pam. "The other performers don’t like her because she rules them with a rod of iron. And because she’s thirty years the boss’ junior, some of them think she’s only with him to get her hands in the till.
"Marko overheard Rory accuse her of just that and reckons Helga dropped the kitbag on him to shut him up."
"She certainly looks ruthless enough," said Jane.
"But it wouldn’t explain her cutting through Tamsin’s tight-wire," said Evelyn.
"Perhaps Helga was jealous of her," Jane ventured. "After all, Tamsin’s one of the rising stars and Helga likes to be queen bee."
Evelyn rubbed her chin and said, "Something doesn’t smell right."
Pam sniffed the air. "Actually, something about those hotdogs doesn’t smell too good."
"Smells like they’re burning to me..." Maude boomed.
Four blue rinsed heads turned in puzzlement. Their mouths dropped open in horror as they saw an enormous plume of black smoke rising into the air. The girl serving clearly hadn’t noticed, but the back of the hotdog wagon was on fire!

Next week: What other disasters await the circus? And can our plucky heroines catch the felon responsible?
.........................................
SPECIAL OFFER
For real life circus escapades, save £4.99 off the retail price by ordering Douglas McPherson’s book Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus at the special offer price of £10 inc p&p. Simply send a cheque to Peter Owen Publishers, 20 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 3QU.
END

Another Great Review for Circus Mania!

2010-11-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA - “A Delightful Book.”

My thanks to Seamus Doran for posting such a great review of Circus Mania on the EuVue website: www.euvue.co.uk/showbiz . Here’s what he wrote:

Circus Mania - All the fun of the Big Top (8/10).
Review by Seamus Doran

We all have circus memories.
Parents taking us to the local travelling one with bright coloured clowns, their rude sounding cars and glamorous tiny women hanging precariously above our heads.
My first experiences were of elephants and clockwise trotting ponies dressed up like Christmas trees.

Who were these death defying performers who after a few days packed up and moved on until next autumn?

This book tells you the story of this noble and fascinating tradition and the people who ran away to the circus, found themselves and found an audience .
The circus started in ancient Rome with horse presentations and gladiatorial displays.
Acrobatic performance emerged from Chinese Theatre, clowning and clowns from pantomime .

All of this came together eventually under The Big Top with entrepreneurs in America such as Barnum and Bertram Mills in England.

Going to the circus was always an event with its unique smells and sense of real danger, author Mc Pherson tells us that this was the fruit of “low budgets and high spirits” a mixture of “the tacky and the amazing”.

Contrary to my sense that this art form was dying out, it appears to be alive and well.
The stories and interviews in this delightful book illuminates what remains a grand place of wonder, escape and romance.

Modern circus doesn’t have many animals (the do gooders of this world saw to that) but it still presents great excitement and fun, the very sap of life.

In an age of Cirque du Soleil circus playing shows all over the world and with their Beatles “LOVE” (the must see Las Vegas show), reading this book will prompt admiration for this special brand of show business and this author’s talent in presenting its magic.

Circus Mania retails at £14.99 but can be ordered direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special price of just £10 including postage. Just send a cheque or postal order to:
Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU

But why not solve all your Christmas present problems in go by ordering Circus Mania in bulk? Described by the Mail on Sunday as “A brilliant account of a vanishing art form,“ and by Gerry Cottle as “A passionate and up-to-date look at the circus and its people,” Circus Mania is a beautiful looking book full of glossy photographs and original line drawings that would make the ideal Christmas present for anyone who ever went to the circus. For wholesale rates on orders of more than six copies, call sales manager Michael O’Connell on 020 7373 5628.

MURDER IN THE CIRCUS!

2010-10-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

MURDER IN THE CIRCUS!

Have You seen this week's My Weekly? The October 30 issue includes the first part of my comedy crime caper Murder In The Circus. The story sees the return of my regular characters The Blue Rinse Brigade, this time caught up in murder and mayhem in the Big Top. It's worth buying a copy of the mag just for the fantastic illustrations, but here's the text of the story... with Part Two coming next week.

THE BLUE RINSE BRIGADE
Ride Again in
MURDER IN THE CIRCUS
Part 1
by Douglas McPherson

Roll up, roll up as ex-detective Evelyn and her fearless friends return for another thrilling adventure.
..........................................................

"It’s murder!" Boomed Maude.
"Are you certain?" asked Jane.
"Positive. Six letters, third letter ‘r’, couldn’t be anything else."
There were advantages to having a friend who had been a code-breaker in World War Two, thought Jane, as she filled in the cryptic crossword.
Mind you, it was handy having been a spy in the Cold War herself, she reflected, as she completed 13 Down: E-S-P-I-O-N-A-G-E.
As Maude turned back to her own newspaper, the peace of her sunny conservatory was disturbed by the sound of her mobile phone ringing with the theme song from Dad‘s Army.
She had the sound turned up to maximum because at 91 she was more than a little deaf. But she had no trouble recognising the ever crisp tones of her friend, the former Scotland Yard detective Evelyn Winstanley-Hughs.
"How do you fancy a trip to the circus?" Evelyn asked without preamble.
"Sounds fun," said Maude. "What time does the show start?"
"As soon as we get there. A clown’s been murdered in front of 500 witnesses and Mervyn’s arrested the wrong man!"

...................................

Evelyn’s maroon and cream Citroen 2CV was at Maude’s door within five minutes.
"We’ll rendezvous with Pam in the high street," said Evelyn, as she pulled away. "Ah, there she is, right on time!"
Mentally back in her youth, as the first woman leader of the Met’s Rapid Response Unit in the 1970s, Evelyn swung her rickety little car up to the kerb just as retired army medic and police pathologist Pam Saunders stepped out of the Dye Hard hairdressers with her freshly blue rinsed ‘do.
"It’s not quite dry," Pam said crustily, "But a Code One is a Code One."
"Reminds me of East Berlin," enthused Jane, who enjoyed some James Bond-style chases behind the Iron Curtain in the 60s.
"Let’s hope you won’t need your Licence to Kill," said Maude, dryly.
Jane whipped a miniature revolver out of her handbag and assured her friends, "I’m locked and loaded, just in case."
Evelyn made the tyres spin and soon the fearless foursome were bumping up onto the grass of the village green.
An orange and blue-striped big top dominated the green, like a pointed fairytale castle surrounded by a circle of lorries and caravans.
A blonde girl leaned out of a pink wagon marked ’box office’ and shouted ’Hey! Have you got a ticket?’ as Evelyn drove straight past her and right up to the front of the circus tent.
Two uniformed police constables guarding the entrance looked up in alarm as the little car chugged and bounced across the grass towards them.
"Who are these clowns?" one PC muttered.
His colleague snapped to attention as Evelyn climbed out of the car. "Good afternoon ladies. Please go straight through..."
When the ladies had gone into the tent, the better informed PC explained to his baffled colleague, "That’s the Blue Rinse Brigade. Led by the Guv’nor’s mother-in-law."
With a smirk, the policeman added, "Mervyn will be happy..."
The big top was empty, and dark except for the spotlights trained upon its central sawdust ring.
Evelyn marched around the perimeter towards the sparkly curtains at the far end as fast as her 81-year-old legs would carry her.
Pam, who was a year younger, trailed behind, using her walking stick to compensate for a hip overdue for replacement.
Jane, who was the youngest of the friends at 75, brought up the rear because she was holding the arm of Maude who was no longer as steady on her feet as she used to be.
Sweeping aside the sparkly curtain, Evelyn found her son-in-law, Inspector Mervyn Pickles, drinking tea from a paper cup and chatting to a uniformed constable in a small backstage area crammed with circus apparatus.
On the grass at their feet, a tarpaulin covered the unmistakable shape of a body. Two enormous red and white clown boots protruded from under one end.
"Never too busy for a cuppa and a good gossip, I see," said Evelyn.
Caught off-guard, Mervyn said, "Actually, we’re waiting for the police pathologist."
"Well you’re in luck," said Evelyn, "Because I’ve brought the best in the business."
"I mean the real police pathologist..." Mervyn began.
Before Mervyn could stop her, Pam reversed her walking stick and used the handle to lift one edge of the tarpaulin.
She winced at what she saw.
"Looks like someone dropped a ton of bricks on the poor fellow."
"That’s not so far from the truth." Mervyn indicated an army-style kitbag on the grass by the wall of the tent.
"At the end of his act a bag full of feathers was supposed to fall out of the ceiling and burst on his head. Unfortunately someone replaced the feathers with that kitbag. It’s full of cement."
At that moment, Jane and Maude caught up with the others. On the way, Jane had picked up one of the plastic patio chairs that formed the ringside seats.
She set it on the grass beside the tarpaulin, and Maude sat down, saying, "Have we missed much?"
"Just one badly flattened funny man who appears to have brought the house down," said Pam. "On his head, unfortunately."
Mervyn said to Evelyn, "Not that I should be telling you lot what‘s going on. How did you hear about this so quickly, anyway?"
Evelyn gave him a triumphant look. "You’re forgetting that your niece is also my granddaughter. When she saw you‘d made such a hasty arrest, she thought the case needed a fresh pair of eyes."
Mervyn bristled. "Now look here, Evelyn. I know you and your friends were very helpful with that dreadful business at Christmas, but that doesn’t give you permission to poke your noses into any investigation that takes your fancy."
"Poke our noses...!" Evelyn protested. "Do I have to remind you of my twenty years at Scotland Yard, ten of them leading the murder squad...?"
"I think you’ve reminded me quite often enough," Mervyn sighed.
"But in this instance your assistance will not be needed. As it happens an arrest has been made but this is an ongoing inquiry and I don’t want you trampling all over it."
Before Evelyn could respond, her mobile rang, with the theme music to The Sweeny.
"Hello my dear," she answered. "I’m in the big top right now. I’ll come to your caravan directly."
Evelyn pocketed the phone and gave Mervyn a smile of mock-innocence.
"Are you forbidding me to pay a social visit to my granddaughter on the rare occasion she comes to town...?"
Mervyn rolled his eyes and wondered if he’d ever win an argument with the formidable leader of the Blue Rinse Brigade.

..................................

"Oh, Granny Evelyn, I’m so glad you’re here!"
Tamsin Connor’s cheek was wet with tears as she wrapped her grandmother in a fond embrace.
"There, there," Evelyn soothed the girl. "Why don’t we go inside and have a cup of tea and you can tell us everything that’s happened."
The little caravan rocked and squeaked as the four blue-rinsed ladies followed Tamsin through the narrow metal doorway.
The inside quickly filled up, but somehow there was room for everyone to sit down. As Jane took charge of the kettle, Tamsin regained her composure.
Evelyn remembered when the raven-haired tightrope walker was a child. She used to love nothing more than playing with toy police cars while Evelyn regaled her with real life tales of catching murderers and bank robbers.
When Tamsin ran away to join the circus, her parents didn’t approve, but Evelyn told her, "If ever you’re in trouble, just call Granny Evelyn."
"I couldn’t believe it when Uncle Mervyn arrested Tommy," Tamsin said, as she wiped her eyes. "I told him Tommy would never hurt anybody, but he wouldn’t listen."
"Leave Mervyn to me," Evelyn said briskly. "Now, if I can just get the facts straight, I take it Tommy is the other clown?"
Putting on her reading glasses, Evelyn leaned towards a framed picture on the wall beside her. It showed Tamsin in a sequined leotard flanked by two handsome young men.
One was wearing a brightly coloured clown suit but had yet to apply his make-up. The other was clad from the neck down in a furry gorilla suit and carried the head under his arm.
"They called themselves the Trouble Brothers but they weren’t really brothers," Tamsin explained. "Tommy’s the one in the clown suit and Rory’s the one who... oh, I can’t believe what’s happened to him."
Tamsin started crying again and Pam handed her a tissue, saying "Chin up, girl."
"It’s all my fault," Tamsin wailed as she dabbed her eyes. "I should never have got involved with someone on the show, it only ever leads to trouble. But when your job moves to a different town each week, who else do you meet but the people you travel with?"
"What happened?" Jane asked gently.
Tamsin took a moment to gather herself, then said, "I joined Telford’s Circus at the beginning of this season. Rory showed an interest in me from the beginning but, like I said, I didn’t want to get involved with someone on the show.
"Rory seemed to accept that. But then Tommy asked me out and, well, I broke my own rule."
"How did Rory react?" asked Evelyn.
"Badly," said Tamsin. "He and Tommy were very competitive and he couldn‘t accept that I‘d chosen Tommy over him. He kept pestering me to go out with him and, of course, that made Tommy jealous."
"It must have taken the fun out of their clown act," Pam ventured.
Tamsin nodded.
"Helga, the ring-mistress, thought I was breaking up the star act. I think she had a word or two with Big Ted, the circus owner, trying to have me thrown off the show. And now... and now this has happened."
For a moment, Tamsin looked on the verge of tears once more. Instead, she fixed pleading, make-up-smeared eyes on Evelyn.
"But I’ll never believe Tommy killed Rory," she insisted. "Yes, he was angry with him, but he’s not a violent man. You have to believe me, Granny Evelyn. Tommy wouldn’t hurt a fly."
As it was such a sunny afternoon, the caravan door was open - and at that moment a shaven headed giant with a huge handlebar moustache shoved his muscle-bound torso through the gap.
"Justa letting you know, Tamsina," he said in a gruff Italian accent. "Big Ted say the evening show willa be going ahead as normal."

........................................

Word of the murder hadn’t reached the general public. When the lights went out and Rory the Clown was dragged from the ring, the audience thought it was all part of the act.
As a result, there was a jolly mood among the families strolling across the green for the evening performance.
The sun was still high and Pam and Maude watched the arrivals from a table beside a hotdog wagon.
Jane joined them, saying, "The circus loos are very clean."
"It’s zoo loos you’ve got to watch," Pam chuckled. "It was the zoo loos that did for Michael Caine."
As Evelyn returned from the hotdog wagon with four teas, Pam said, "You’ve got to admit Mervyn’s got a good case against young Tommy."
"Poppycock!" Evelyn snorted.
"He had the opportunity," Maude pointed out. "There are witnesses to him winching the bag of supposed feathers into the ceiling."
"That was after last night’s show," Evelyn reminded her. "Anybody could have switched the bag in the meantime."
"He also had a motive," Jane said gently. "If Tommy thought Rory was a rival for Tamsin’s affections, that could have driven him to murder."
"Tamsin told Tommy she wasn’t interested in Rory," Evelyn countered.
"She admitted that hadn’t stopped Tommy and Rory arguing, though," Jane returned.
"Then there’s the little matter of Tommy doing a runner immediately after the deed," Pam said darkly. "You have to admit that looks suspicious."
"He probably panicked," said Evelyn.
For a long, pointed moment, nobody spoke. Eventually, Jane said what Pam and Maude were clearly thinking: "I can see why you want to believe your granddaughter when she says Tommy wouldn’t do it..."
"But...?" Evelyn challenged her, icily.
Jane hesitated, then said, "Do you think you might be too close to the case?"
"I’m no closer than Mervyn," Evelyn retorted. "Tamsin’s his niece - and he clearly doesn’t believe her. No, I’m quite capable of looking at this case impartially.
"As it happens I do tend to believe Tamsin’s assessment of Tommy’s character. But whether she‘s right about Tommy or not, there’s no harm in looking into the matter and satisfying ourselves that Mervyn’s got it right for once."
"Where do you propose we start?" asked Pam.
Evelyn opened a circus programme and turned to the cast list. "Well, these are our suspects..."
"That Italian strongman has to be in the frame," said Pam. "He’d have no trouble manhandling a kitbag full of cement. What’s his name again?"
"Luigi," Jane said warmly. She held up her iPhone to show a picture she’d snapped of the shaven headed visitor to Tamsin’s caravan. "He’s quite a dish, isn’t he?"
"I expect you’re volunteering to pump him for information, Mata Hari " Pam chuckled.
Jane held up her hand to show a diamond ring, and said with mock primness, "I’ll thank you to remember that I’m engaged."
"Remember that you landed the millionaire owner of Burbridge’s department store?" Pam scoffed, "I don’t think you’ll ever let us forget!"
"Jealous as always," Jane said smugly.
"Getting back to the matter in hand..." Evelyn cut in, "I propose we divide ourselves into two pairs to interview the artistes."
"Will they talk to us, though?" said Pam. "Mervyn’s made it clear we’re operating unofficially, and I’ve heard circus people are a clannish, secretive lot."
"Perhaps we should launch an undercover operation," Jane enthused. "Infiltrate their secret world and overhear things they‘d never tell an outsider!"
"Good suggestion," said Evelyn.
Maude gave her a level look and said, loudly, "If you’re suggesting we disguise ourselves as the world’s oldest trapeze troupe I don’t think my knees are up to it."
"We could call ourselves the Wheezy Chesty-coughs," joked Pam.
"Or the Flying Zimmer Frames," Jane said, playfully.
"If we could all be serious for a moment," Evelyn rapped her knuckles impatiently on the table. "I don’t think we need to dig out our leotards. But we do know the circus is short of a clown. So who do we know who could fill his outsize shoes?"
"Have to be someone fit enough to do a bit of tumbling..." said Pam.
"And who wouldn’t mind getting the odd custard pie in the face..." said Maude.
"Afternoon ladies, fancy seeing you here."
The four friends looked up to see Tony Size, the fit young self-defence instructor better known to the ladies of the WI as Tony Thighs.
As four light-bulbs lit up in the air above the heads of the Blue Rinse Brigade, Tony’s stick of candyfloss froze half way to his open mouth.
"Er, why are you looking at me like that?"
Evelyn turned to her friends. "Now that looks to me like a young man who always dreamed of running away with the circus."
"A daring young man on the flying trapeze if ever I saw one!" Jane enthused.
"The roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd," cackled Pam.
Tony instinctively put his free hand on his behind.
"If this is another of your missions..." he began warily, "I’ve only just recovered from the mauling that boxer dog gave me at Christmas..."
"Oh, this wouldn’t be anything like as dangerous as that," Evelyn reassured him.
"Just a bit of clowning round," Pam said breezily.
"Well I might as well tell you straight," said Tony, "that I’m really not..."
Before he could finish, the theme music from The Sweeny burst loudly from Evelyn’s pocket. She whipped out her phone.
"Hello my dear..." Evelyn abruptly fell silent, a serious look on her face. "We’ll be right there," she said, and cut the line.
"Tamsin was checking her tight-wire backstage," Evelyn explained. "Someone’s sawn halfway through it and if she’d walked on it, it would have snapped. At 30-feet up, the fall could have killed her."
Pam pointed her walking stick at Tony. "So Sherlock, are you going to stand there and ignore a damsel in distress? Or are you going to help me get out of this chair?"

Next week: Is a serial killer stalking the circus? And will our four friends crack the case before the murderer strikes again?
................................................

!!!SPECIAL OFFER!!!

If you've enjoyed the above story, discover the real life world behind the scenes of the big top in my book Circus Mania.

Described by the Mail on Sunday as "A brilliant account of a vanishing art form... an excelent book," Circus Mania retails at £14.99, but you can by it direct from Peter Owen Publishers for just £10 including postage. Just send a cheque to Peter Owen Publishers, 20 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 3QU, or call 020 7373 5628 during office hours.

Rave Review for Circus Mania!

2010-09-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

RAVE REVIEW!
For Circus Mania!

My thanks to Tina Jackson for writing a fantastic review of Circus Mania on the Writers’ Hub website (www.writershub.co.uk). Here’s what she wrote:

CIRCUS MANIA by Douglas McPherson
Review by Tina Jackson

Circus is having a moment at the moment, with every creative Tom, Dick and Harry borrowing from its rich imagery to add motifs of magic to their endeavours. But how many people actually take themselves under canvas and experience for themselves the spectacular skills and very real risks undertaken by performers who take their lives in their hands to show their audience, for five miraculous moments, that they have transcended the limits of what human bodies are usually capable? A trip to the circus will usually reveal more bare seats than this wonderful form of art and entertainment deserves.

Perhaps a read of Circus Mania Douglas McPherson’s lovely, lively account of the world of the circus might tempt people to see for themselves the tricks they’re missing. Just like his subject, McPherson’s terrifically readable account is a mixed bag: colourful and populist, high culture and trash culture, mingling tales of outrageous daring, skill and beauty with things that are more tacky, if not tawdry. It’s a journey of discovery as well as a labour of love, prompted by the writer’s experience interviewing Eva, a performer on the aerial silks. McPherson’s interview was the last Eva ever gave; the day after she spoke to him, she fell 30 feet during her act, and died instantly.

McPherson’s approach – a combination of candid curiosity and passionate fascination – allows him access to people from a tight-knit community whose way of life is rarely penetrated by outsiders. He talks to members of old circus families who provide him with a sense of the continuing history of the circus, and representatives of the new, art-driven form of cirque that has largely replaced the older tradition where animals would perform alongside humans. His most fascinating chapters, in fact, concern the issue of performing animals and the shift away from the practice that took place in the 1990s, prompted by the question of animal cruelty – something which, after much investigation, McPherson finds no evidence to substantiate.

McPherson wears his heart on his sleeve about his admiration for circus performers of all kinds, for their dedication and physical skill. He is clear-sighted and non-judgemental at the same time as taking an unmistakeably partisan stance on the subject. He does not pretend to be an insider, however, merely a great enthusiast. This approach gives the book an appealing freshness and creates the sense that, with each new anecdote, the writer is sharing what he discovers. He speaks with equal fervour to traditional seaside clowns, to members of The Circus Of Horrors who have revived the old-school freak show for a rock’n’roll audience, and to European performers of theatrical cirque.

Like a good old fashioned circus – McPherson’s favourite kind, in the end – the book rollicks along at a cracking pace, delivering a cast of colourful characters, and a parade of stories of the life-is-stranger-than-fiction variety. There are thrills and spills, acts of derring-do, heart-in-mouth moments, and laughs aplenty. The circus deserves this book and, like the circus, McPherson deserves for Circus Mania to reach a very wide and appreciative audience.
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!!!SPECIAL OFFER!!!

Want to read it for yourself? Circus Mania retails at £14.99, but you can save £5 by ordering direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of £10 postage-free. Just send a cheque for £10 to:
Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU
Credit card orders can be taken during office hours on 020 7373 5628.

Mail on Sunday Review

2010-08-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA ‘BRILLIANT!’
Says Mail on Sunday!

“Circus Mania is a brilliant account of a vanishing art form,” and an “Excellent book.” Not my words, but the view of Britain’s best selling Sunday paper, the Mail on Sunday. Here’s the full four-star review by Roger Lewis, which appeared in the Mail on Sunday on August 8.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON FOR EVER
Circus Mania by Douglas McPherson
**** FOUR -STARS ****
Review by Roger Lewis.

In the old days, the best way of disposing with a killer elephant was to change its name and sell it to a rival circus. You wouldn’t get away with that now. Indeed, you would be hard-pressed to find elephants in any travelling circus, according to Douglas McPherson in this excellent book. Mostly gone, too, are the footballing poodles, unrideable mules and snarling lions and tigers.

The public finally turned against performing animals in 1998, when Mary Chipperfield was convicted on 12 counts of cruelty against a chimp called Trudy. Animal rights charities have also been persistent, putting pressure on shops not to display posters advertising circuses and getting their fanatics to yell ‘child abuser!’ at parents who take their offspring to see a show.

It is illogical. Animal rights people ought to vent their rage on the horse-racing fraternity, or on anyone with a goldfish. The Government has recently completed a two year investigation which concluded circuses are ‘perfectly capable of meeting the welfare needs of animals in their care.’ Furthermore, animals are inspected by local authority vets and the RSPCA at every new site the circus visits. McPherson says circus animals have ‘always been fantastically looked after.’

Nevertheless, I agree with him when he says there is no need to see elephants or horses do demeaning tricks, as it is a privilege simply to be able ‘to admire them in motion at such close quarters.’
For that is the appeal of the circus: there is no computer-generated trickery. The galloping palomino stallions are real. The acrobats feats of strength and balance on the trapeze are real. The risk of sudden death is real.

Circus Mania is a brilliant account of a vanishing art form. McPherson vividly describes the frisson of entering the big top, the pulsating music and ‘the strange light beneath the canvas.’ Part of the appeal, he says, is the combination of ‘low budgets and high spirits,’ a mixture of ‘the tacky and the amazing.’

The circus has a venerable and noble tradition. It commenced in the arenas of ancient Rome - the Circus Maximus, the Circus Flaminus and the Circus Neronis - with equestrian displays and gladiatorial contests. Acrobatic feats derive from the Chinese theatre. Horsemanship was a Cossack and Hungarian gipsy skill. The clowns came from pantomime and the music halls described by Charles Dickens.

McPherson’s interviews with today’s circus artistes are particularly interesting. Circus families are tight knit and have been slaving away for centuries. ‘There are no sick notes in the circus,’ one performer told him. ‘You go on and do the same act with a smile on your face, even if you are in pain.’

Such stoicism and dedication are only to be admired, for it can be a pitiless existence, living in ‘rusty, showerless caravans,’ and taking down and re-erecting the Big Top at a new ground every week or so.

To become an escapologist or juggler, or to perform gravity-defying stunts high in the air, takes immense concentration and years of practise. The great clown David Konyot was shot out of a cannon before he could walk. Anyone who wants to become a sword-swallower must train their oesophagus to open at will by poking a coat hanger down the throat.

Not everyone is cut out for the circus ring, despite their best efforts. Saddest of all are the likes of Otis the Frog Boy and Captain Dan the Demon Dwarf, deprived of their livelihood by disability rights activists.

McPherson also tells of a duff fire-eater who set fire to his finger and chin at an audition for Gerry Cottle. He tried to put out the flames on his chin and his finger reignited. Eventually, Gerry had to run over and cover him with a blanket. ‘He turned up at the show three days later with his finger all bandaged up and wearing his McDonald’s uniform.’

Perhaps the success of Cirque du Soleil, which currently has 19 shows running worldwide, means that the circus will stage a comeback. Fifty years ago, the Queen used to go regularly to Bertram Mills and Billy Smart’s, and I’m glad to see that Norman Barrett, ringmaster and budgie trainer, was included in a recent honours list.
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If that review makes you want to read Circus Mania, you can save £5 off the retail price by ordering it direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of just £10 postage-free within the UK. (Add £2.50 for postage worldwide). Just send a cheque or postal order to:

Peter Owen Publishers
20 Holland Park Avenue
London W11 3QU

Credit card orders can be taken on 020 7370 6093 during office hours.

2010-07-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

BIG CAT DIARY
What’s life like in a cage with six man-eating Bengal tigers? I asked Great British Circus star Martin Lacey, who presents Britain’s last big cat show.
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Tigers and lions are like chalk and cheese. Or, as Martin Lacey puts it, “Tigers are a bit like French swordsmen. If you look at them the wrong way you can lose an ear. Lions are more like all-in wrestlers. You can have a laugh and a joke and cajole them, but don’t let ‘em grab you, because they’ll all gang up on you.”
The reason for the difference lies in millions of years of evolution. “Male lions live on the open veldt. They get lots of warning if there’s problem, so they’re more laid back. Only uptight, nervous tigers have survived because when you’re going through thick undergrowth, with one step you can scare away a wild boar or walk into a trap.”
Lacey knows big cats better than probably anyone in Britain, because he’s spent the best part of fifty years working with them, currently as director and star of the Great British Circus.
“You have to become a practising animal psychologist,” says Lacey. “To train a lion, you have to think like a lion.”
He gives an example: “If a lion is going to have a go at you, they take their time and work it out. One day you’ll notice that when the lion goes from A-B, instead of moving in a straight line, he’ll bow in towards you slightly. The next day he’ll come just a little bit closer, until in the end he’s coming straight at you.
“What you do is, the day before he’s got it in his head that he’s going to hook you, you step forward, clip his ear and say, ’Hey! Behave yourself!’ And he goes, ‘Aw, I’ve been found out!’”
Watching Lacey in a cage with five tigers is a mesmerising experience. The presentation couldn’t be more relaxed or gentle. The 300lb predators are as docile as domestic ginger cats as he commands them to make an effortless leap from one pedestal to another with a shrug of his shoulder and a, “Are you ready? Go on then.”
Lacey describes training and performance as “A bit like taking your dog to the park and throwing sticks for him. It’s something you both enjoy.”
But tigers remain genetically programmed killers, as Lacey discovered during a practise session nine years ago, when he accidentally stood on a tiger’s paw.
“Suddenly I’ve got a tiger on one leg, then another tiger thought, ‘This looks like a good game, I think I’ll join in.’ So the next thing I know I’m on the ground with a tiger on each leg.”
He shouted to his assistant, “’Get out of the cage, there’s no point two of us getting killed!’ Because it had got to the stage where I thought I was going to become a lump of meat with two tigers fighting over me.”
Fortunately, his protégé Helyne Edmonds ignored the advice to save herself and saved Martin instead.
The aftermath “looked like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” says Lacey. It took him six months to walk properly again.
Despite that near fatal encounter, it’s hard to imagine a man talking about his animals more fondly. To quote his catchphrase, “A day without lions and tigers is like a day without sunshine.”
Lacey discovered his affinity with animals at Chester Zoo, where he rode the zebras and camels and organised chimpanzee tea parties. “I didn’t want to be a jailer. I wanted to work with the animals,” he recalls.
During the 70s, Lacey found television fame as a regular animal presenter on children’s show Magpie and provided the tigers for Esso’s ’Put a tiger in your tank’ adverts. Moving into the circus world, he developed his own style of presenting big cats.
“I used to cuddle and kiss them, ride them around the ring, stick my head in their mouth... it was all very nicey-nicey, and fortunately, that’s what the public liked.”
Today, Lacey’s is the last big cat act in Britain, although he is training his Great British Circus co-director Helyne Edmonds to follow in his footsteps with a mixed lion and tiger act of her own.
Lacey’s sons Alex and Martin Jr present big cats in Germany. Martin Jr this year became the first Englishman to win a Gold Clown at the International Circus Festival in Monte Carlo. Lacey is “disgusted” that this achievement - the circus equivalent of winning the Olympics - went largely unreported in the UK.
On the continent, Lacey says his sons are “treated like film stars.” For his own part, however, he says fame and fortune are no longer his motivation for twice daily getting into the tigers’ cage.
“I just go in and play with my animals, which I enjoy doing. As opposed to wowing the audience, the act is really for me to play with my pets.”
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The above article recently appeared in The Stage. To see Britain’s last tiger trainer in action, head along to Rochford, near Southend, in Essex, where the Great British Circus is appearing from August 10. For details call the box office on 07947 441166.
But for the full story of Martin Lacey and many other circus stars, from trapeze artists and sword swallowers to tight-wire walkers and clowns, buy my new book Circus Mania! - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus.
Circus Mania retails at £14.99, but you can buy it direct from Peter Owen Publishers for the special offer price of just £10 postage-free. Simply send a cheque or postal order to:
Peter Owen Publishers
73 Kenway Road
London SW5 ORE
(For delivery outside the UK, add £2.50 postage worldwide)

2010-07-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

FEARLESS!
Hippodrome Circus Wows Once More!

Now in its 31st year under the helmsmanship of Peter Jay, a trip to the Hippodrome just gets better. The new summer show, Fearless, may well be the best I’ve seen there since my first visit, in the circus venue’s 100th anniversary year, back in 2003.

Among the highlights is a Wheel of Death that finds Columbia’s Duo Vanegas skipping a rope, walking blindfold and turning a death-defying somersault atop their huge, revolving contraption. Fearless, indeed!

But it’s not just the stunts that make this a great show. There’s a huge sense of enthusiasm coming off all the performers that communicates directly with the audience to make this one of the must-see circus shows of the year.

Nowhere is the show’s energy and vibrancy more apparent than in a new cloud-swing routine by Robert Foxhall, set to Queen’s high energy disco classic Don’t Stop Me Now (Cos I’m Having A Good Time). Foxhall’s gleeful showing off above the fountains and swimming pool of the Hippodrome’s near-unique Water Spectacular gels so perfectly with the exuberance of the music that the routine is not just impressive but lifts the soul.

Another great moment comes with Vladimir Georgievsky’s frantic, cartoon-paced comedy trampoline. It’s the best such routine I’ve seen for a long time. Again, it’s not just the technique, but the charisma Vlad brings to the routine. Plus, of course, the way director Peter Jay has dressed the act up with dancing girls and music - in this case Frank Sinatra’s Ain’t That A Kick In The Head?

Jay’s window dressing also adds hugely to a hand-to-hand balancing act by Poland’s Duo Vector, who here perform on an island in the middle of the swimming pool. Now, where else short of Las Vegas would you see that?

After the show... there’s another treat. In traditional circuses you pay a quid to visit the animals in the ‘zoo’ at the back of the tent. At the Hippodrome, the old stables are now home to a fantastic museum of circus artefacts that Peter Jay has been collecting for the past three decades.
A clown car... gorilla suit... chimp’s bicycle... enamel signs... posters... unicycles... pianos... props... scenery... it’s a veritable Aladdin’s cave that’s all the more interesting for the explosion in a jumble sale look with which it’s all piled up in the Hippodrome’s labyrinth of atmospheric backstage corridors. With a unique piece of circus history at every turn, the collection will delight circus lovers almost as much as the show itself.

In the foyer, meanwhile, it was good to see my book Circus Mania! displayed front and centre on the merchandise table for just £10 - pre-signed by Yours Truly. That’s £5 less than in the shops - another reason to get along to the Hippodrome this summer!

There’s loads about the Hippodrome in Circus Mania! and you couldn’t buy it in a better place. Go along and get it signed by Peter Jay and the other stars of the show.

If you don’t make it to the Hippodrome, you can still buy Circus Mania for £10 post-free from Peter Owen Publishers. Call 020 7373 5628 or send a cheque or postal order to:

Peter Owen Publishers
73 Kenway Road
London SW5 ORE

2010-06-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

Secret Showman
Meet the Mr Big of British circus!

Who is the biggest player in the British circus industry? Douglas McPherson hears the sawdust to riches story of Brian Austen, promoter of The Chinese State Circus and Moscow State Circus.
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Brian Austen puts it like this: “Gerry Cottle is probably the most successful circus person of the past 25 years, in terms of people knowing who he is. Whereas if you said ‘Brian Austen’ to anybody, they wouldn’t have a clue who I was.”

In fact, as promoter of the Chinese State Circus and the Moscow State Circus, Austen is the biggest player in the British circus industry - and his rise to the top has been intertwined with Cottle’s since the two men set up their first circus together in the early 70s, when they had barely two lorries and a second-hand tent between them.

Looking back, Austen admits, “I suppose I feel hurt sometimes that Gerry always got the recognition for everything we did together and, actually, behind it all, I don’t think he was the key to it. I think he carried the credit for a lot of ideas that were mine and, financially, the money was mine. But he’s a great showman, and that’s his prerogative.”

Although he began his career in the ring, where the walked the high wire as El Briarno, Austen has never shared Cottle’s love of the limelight.

In fact, it was only thanks to the persuasion of his old pal Cottle that Austen agreed to give his first interview in decades, for my new book, Circus Mania!

He attributes his media-shyness to the fact that, “I came from a poor background and I probably lacked confidence. I was happy for Gerry to do all the talking, to be the mouthpiece and the leader, if you want. But in me he had somebody who, whatever he wanted to do, I could back it up. As a team, we were unbeatable.”

Austen ran away with Count Lazard’s Anglo-American Circus when he was 15.

With a chuckle, he remembers, “I always said to Gerry, the one thing I learned from the Anglo-American was to do nothing they did, because it always ended in chaos!”

The first time Austen encountered the ramshackle operation it didn’t even have a tent.

“They’d had a blow down, so they circled the lorries and set up the seats in the middle.”

Brian’s accommodation was a caravan that he shared with the Count’s collection of snakes.

“I never ever got paid. But I wasn’t bothered. They used to feed me and look after me.”

Brian joined the circus as a horse groom but quickly taught himself an impressive repertoire of circus skills including wire-walking, bare-back horse-riding, lion training and knife-throwing - with his girlfriend as target girl.

“I only nicked her once,” Brian confesses, “And it was just her tights. I don’t think it even marked her.”

In particular, Austen discovered an aptitude for the technical and logistics side of circus.

That came in handy when the Anglo-American embarked on a South African tour and arrived to find the promoter had vanished, along with the money. Brian ended up building the seats for an outdoor circus, using wooden pallets discarded by a car factory.

“I used to do four acts in the ring, do the whole build-up and drive - as a 17-year-old with no licence. It was incredibly hard work, but it was a phenomenal adventure.

“We were the first circus ever to go into Swaziland. I remember places where they’d never seen a circus and the sight of someone on stilts was frightening to them.”

The African adventure ended when Brian ran away with the Count’s sister-in-law. To raise the fare home, “I went to work on South African railways, cleaning the coaches. I used to collect all the Coke bottles and take them to the shop to get the sixpences.”

Back in Britain, Austen joined James Brothers Circus, where his accommodation was, “A caravan with no door and absolutely nothing in it!”

It was at James Brothers that Austen teamed up with Cottle - a stockbroker’s son turned clown and stilt-walker who had big ideas about owning Britain’s biggest circus.

In 1970, the pair founded Embassy Circus, which quickly became Cottle & Austen’s Circus - with the proprietors and their wives performing nearly all the acts.

In addition to his duties in the ring, Brian recalls, “I was the tent master and the transport manager. I never went to bed two nights a week, because I moved the circus all through the night on my own.”

Was he as ambitious as Cottle?

“No, I was never ambitious. I went through life without any great plans. I just enjoyed what I did. But I suppose at the end of the day I was aggressive enough to want a little bit more all the time. I was never content to sit back with what I had.”

Cottle & Austen got their big break when they were featured on TV’s Philpott Files, and the cover of the Radio Times, as ‘The smallest greatest show on Earth.’

By the mid-70s, they had achieved Cottle’s ambition of being Britain’s most successful circus, thanks in part to a decision to monopolise London’s parks, where no circuses had appeared for years.

In retrospect, Austen considers, “We never had a brilliant circus, but we had an entertaining circus. We put it together well and made it gel.”

The partnership dissolved over Cottle’s decision to start a circus on ice, which proved a loss-maker, and Brian continued with his own Austen Brothers Circus.

Austen and Cottle would later work together on various circus ventures, most notably promoting the hugely successful Chinese and Moscow State circuses, which have now been on permanent tour in the UK for a decade.
In 2003, Austen bought out Cottle’s share and took sole control of the Chinese and Moscow.

But while Cottle’s career - and personal life - has had more highly publicised ups and downs than a trampoline act, the less conspicuous Austen has trod a steadier path.

“I’ve never been bankrupt. I’ve never been in any sort of financial trouble in my life. I’m a plodder, a careful person rather than a chancer. I set my sights lower and move on from there.”

Austen invested the profits from his circuses in a wide range of other interests, including helicopter sales, a 250-acre industrial estate, an engineering business that manufactures specialist circus vehicles, and a company that supplies grandstand seating to prestigious events such as the Trooping of the Colour.

Always looking for new enterprises, he says, “I’m developing houses, building nursing homes... I think I’m a real entrepreneur in that I see opportunities in all fields and I have a go at them.”

He attributes the enduring popularity of the Chinese and Moscow circuses to a policy of reinvestment, particularly in customer comfort.

“I was the first to put aluminium doors on a tent, or even doors at all. The first to have proper heating... the rest didn’t seem to care.

“In my view, the problem with circus is the people who run it. They’re not prepared to put money back into it, to make it a better circus. The old circus families, in particular, are a disgrace. You pull on the ground and see the transport with the paint hanging off...

“When Gerry and I started, we put the lorries around the front and they were always well painted. It’s first impressions, isn’t it?”

On a personal level, Austen attributes his success in business to honesty and loyalty. Many of his staff have been with him for decades.

“If I’ve shook my hand on something, I’ve shook it. I don’t need a lawyer or a contract to remind me.

“I think that’s the best way to be, because I believe there’s always another time. I’m not after a quick buck, I’m after the long haul, and I would like to have the people I deal with around for a long time.”

Claiming to be unmotivated by money, the 61-year-old adds that he has no plans to retire.

“The truth is, I’m not good at doing nothing. I have a big boat in the Med. I’ve got a helicopter. I’ve got nearly everything I want. But I still get up at half-past-six every morning and go to work.”
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(This article originally appeared in The Stage. For the latest circus reviews, visit www.thestage.co.uk)

For the full story of Brian Austen and many other colourful circus folk, buy Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away With The Circus by Douglas McPherson.
Save £5 off the recommended retail price by ordering direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of just £10 postage-free.
Call: 020 7370 6093
Or send a cheque/postal order to:
Peter Owen Publishers
73 Kenway Road
London SW5 ORE

COMING SOON ON CIRCUS MANIA!:
BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE HIPPODROME CIRCUS MUSEUM!

2010-06-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS TALK!

Wish me luck... and if you’re in the Great Yarmouth area, come along to my first public appearance promoting Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus.

The Time & Tide Museum Of Great Yarmouth Life has invited me to give a reading from Circus Mania and tell some of the stories from the book as part of their Showtime circus exhibition (see post below for more details).

I’ll be appearing at 11.30am on Friday June 25 at the museum, which is on Blackfriars Road, Great Yarmouth, NR30 3BX. Tickets are £2.60, which includes tea or coffee. For more info, phone 01493 743930.

Hope to see you there. Just don’t be late, because the Tide & Time Museum waits for no man.

Also, if you’re in Norfolk, you can hear me talking about Circus Mania on Maggie Seker’s Radio Norfolk show on Sunday June 20 at 3pm.

Finally, I’ve just got back from seeing the Russian Ice Stars fantastic production of Snow White On Ice. Following their venture into circus last year with Cirque De Glace, it’s good to see that they have retained some circus tricks to enliven this more traditional display of ice dance. Some terrific aerial silk and aerial strap work, including a guy literally swinging from a chandelier, drew audible gasps from an audience clearly not expecting to see skaters take to the air in such dramatic ways.

See this show if you get the chance, and look out for their next Cirque show which is due in the autumn.

Of course, you can read the full story of the making of Cirque de Glace in Circus Mania. It’s in all good bookshops - or you can save a fiver by buying it direct from Peter Owen Publishers for the special offer price of just £10 postage-free. Just send a cheque to Peter Owen Publishers, 73 Kenway Road, London SW5 ORE.

Next post: Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten. A rare and exclusive interview with the Mr Big of British circus will be posted on the Circus Mania blog very soon.

Circus Exhibition

2010-06-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

ROLL UP, ROLL UP!
TO A NEW CIRCUS EXHIBITION!

It wasn’t so much a case of bringing the house down as bringing the bridge down when Cooke’s Equestrian Circus became the first circus to visit Great Yarmouth, in 1845. To drum up publicity, Nelson the Clown sailed down the River Bure in a bathtub pulled by four geese. So many people crammed onto the suspension bridge to see him that the bridge collapsed and 79 people were drowned.

A painting depicting the disaster is one of the exhibits of Showtime, an exhibition celebrating 165 years of circus in the seaside resort, at the Time & Tide Museum Of Great Yarmouth Life.
Naturally, much of the exhibition focuses on Yarmouth’s very own piece of circus history, Britain’s oldest circus building, the Hippodrome. Owner Peter Jay has loaned a wealth of items such as posters, paintings, and props from his backstage collection. These include a chimp bicycle used by the Billy Russell chimps in the 1950s, a swan float from the water-shows and an elephant razor. This razor was used by an elephant for pretending to shave a member of the audience, before dousing them in water!

The exhibition also includes a massive collection of memorabilia amassed by circus historian Don Stacey. He has loaned props and costumes such as a big cat pedestal, trapeze and a white-faced clown costume made by Vicaire. Vicaire was a Parisian maker who specialised in creating heavily sequinned costumes to contrast with the well-known style of baggy tartan trousers and red nose favoured by Jacko Fossett, Britain’s best loved clown. A leotard once worn by Miguel Vazquez, the first trapeze artist to successfully complete the quadruple somersault is also amongst Don’s loans as well as paintings, prints, and posters.

Other attractions include film footage of the circus past and present and a display of paintings by Katherine Hamilton during her residency at the Hippodrome.
There will also be a series of talks each Friday morning, including A History Of Clowning by Don Stacy and The Roman Circus by Adrian Marsden.

If you want to get more involved, Rollo the clown will be hosting a drop-in circus skills workshop every Monday from July 26 to August 30.
Showtime is open from 10am - 5pm until October 31, which makes it the perfect taster for a visit to the Hippodrome’s summer season.

Oh, and finally, don’t forget to pick up a copy of Circus Mania in the museum bookshop - there’s plenty in it about the Hippodrome and every other aspect of the circus life, past and present.

If you’re unable to attend the Showtime exhibition, though, don’t forget you can order Circus Mania direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special discount price of just £10 postage-free. Simply send a cheque or postal order to:
Peter Owen (Sales)
73 Kenway Road
London SW5 0RE
Or call: 020 7370 6093.
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COMING SOON on the Circus Mania blog: Meet the Mr Big of British circus!

Circus Training

2010-05-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

ROLL UP, ROLL UP!
For the ultimate guide to running away with the circus!

Want a degree in circus arts? Or fancy hooking up your caravan and joining Zippos academy for a summer’s intensive training in the big top?

Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus is in the shops now - and the good news is you can save £££s by buying it direct from Peter Owen Publishers for the very special price of just £10 postage-free (Just call 020 7370 6093 or send a cheque to Peter Owen Publishers, 73 Kenway Road, London SW5 ORE).

But supposing you really want to run away with the circus - how do you go about it? Theatrical bible The Stage recently ran a special circus issue to which I contributed the following article on training opportunities in the UK.
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In the sawdust ring of the Circus Mondao big top, 9-year-old Cinzia Timmis and her 12-year-old sister Madalane are putting a troupe of pygmy goats through their paces. Elsewhere in the twice daily show, they ride horses, perform a magic routine and don sequins and fishnets to join in with dancers a decade their senior.

Out of the spotlight, they work in the stables, help put up the circus tent and, presumably, find time to go to school as well

The girls are following in the footsteps of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents who have travelled with tent and caravan for 200 years.

At one time, it was only people like Cinzia and Madalane, who were ever considered true circus people.

Those who ran away with a travelling show to become an apprentice were always jossers or flatties - outsiders - in the old circus parlance, and had to prove their commitment by doing the dirtiest jobs, such as mucking out the elephants, before they were considered worthy of being schooled in the arts of the circus ring.

In today’s circus world, however, there are fewer elephants to attend to. The old circus families, and their traditions, have largely given way to contemporary companies like Canada’s international success story Cirque du Soleil.

Circus skills have spilled out of the big top into theatres, arts festivals, pop concerts, cruise ships and corporate entertainment... and along with the increased employment opportunities for acrobats and fire-eaters, there are more formal routes into the industry.

At the Circus Space, in London, you can even get a degree.

Founded in 1989 by a group of new circus performers who wanted a place to train and teach outside the traditional circus environment, Circus Space is a state of the art facility in a former power station in Hoxton. The cavernous rooms where the furnaces and generators once stood provide the perfect space for trapeze.

On the three-year BA (Hons) degree course, students are given a one-year grounding in a variety of skills - juggling, trampoline, aerial work and acrobalance - before choosing a speciality.

There are no previous qualifications required for entry, which is by audition, and according to Head of Aerial Disciplines, Juliette Hardy-Donaldson, the students have a variety of aspirations.

“Some want to be in companies they already know. Others want to start their own companies or freelance. The events industry is the bread and butter in this country, because it’s good money.”

Typical graduates are Kaveh Rahnama and Lauren Hardy, who co-founded their own company, So And So Circus, as well as returning to Circus Space to teach on the youth and recreational courses that the school also provides.

“Circus Space changed my life,” says Kaveh. “As performance arts courses go, I’d say one of the biggest strengths of Circus Space is that they tell you very realistically how to make a living from circus. You do a whole module on a business plan. A lot of my friends went to RADA or LAMDA, and they never had that.”

Kaveh adds that the degree course is no cinch, however. Of the 22 students in his year, only 16 graduated.

“Some people think it’s going to be a bit of fun, but actually it’s incredibly hard work. As well as circus skills, you do a lot of conditioning: circuit training, press ups, sit-ups, as well as theatre and movement.”
A possibly even tougher introduction to life in the circus is offered by the Academy of Circus Arts.

Martin Burton of Zippos circus founded the Academy after hiring a trapeze act trained in a conventional circus school. He asked them to hang their swing in his big top, and was told they didn’t know how to.

“They’d trained in a building where the trapeze was already hanging each day. So although they’d developed a really great act, they hadn’t learned one of the key things, which is how to hang a piece of kit that is going to save your life.”

The trapeze artists then proved unable to adapt to living in a caravan and travelling from town to town each week.

Burton’s solution was a circus school that roams the country in its own tent - the one where the BBC1 sitcom Big Top was filmed. The 2010 course runs from May 1 to October 2, and in addition to the £2,800 fee, students are encouraged to bring their own caravan, although bunk wagon accommodation is available to rent.

The result of living the circus lifestyle 24/7, says Burton, is that “Circus directors from around the world queue up to employ my graduates because they know they will be used to sitting in the box office, putting up posters, building up the big top and taking it down, driving trucks from town to town... and all the many, many things that go with life in the circus besides just doing your act.

“The other part of the ethos is that they put on a show each week. So the students know they’d better pay attention to what we teach them on Monday because they’re going to be doing it in front of an audience on Friday.”

An emphasis on rehearsal for regular public performances is also at the heart of the Wookey Hole Circus, a new training facility founded by veteran showman Gerry Cottle at the Wookey Hole caves tourist attraction in Somerset.

Cottle began the school as an evening class for local 9 to 16-year-olds.

“We’re getting a good name,” says Cottle. “If you ask most people if they want to see a youth circus, they’d think it’s not going to be very good. But when they come and see all these little smiling faces... then the kids start doing forward somersaults and riding unicycles standing on each other’s shoulders, then they really do like the show.”

This year, Cottle is expanding his operation with a 10-week circus skills course for adults over 16. The first term commences September 2010 and costs £3000 including accommodation and one meal per day.

Cottle has also announced that in 2011, he will be opening Britain’s first full-time circus school for school-age children, with academic lessons taught alongside circus skills.

Thanks to the success of Cirque du Soleil and circus-themed pop shows by Britney Spears and Take That, David Davies, Chairman of the Circus Friends Association, says “There’s a big interest in circus throughout the country at youth level. There are a lot of circus skills being taught in youth clubs, circus clubs and universities.”

Despite the efforts of Cottle, Circus Space, the Academy of Circus Arts and a very small number of other circus schools, however, the opportunities for professional circus training in the UK remain limited and of an uneven standard compared with other performing arts - and compared with countries such as China, which has state-run full-time circus schools in every province, taking pupils from the age of six.

It’s no coincidence that Britain’s two most successful touring shows of the past decade have been the Chinese State Circus and the Moscow State Circus, or that performers from China and Russia (another country with a tradition of state-funded circus schools) dominate the cast of Cirque du Soleil.

Jane Rice-Bowen, CEO of Circus Space, feels that increased public funding for training and development is the main requirement if home-grown talent is to compete on the world stage.

“We want people to think about circus in the way they think about opera - as a very expensive endeavour. I think we have to talk about circus on that kind of grand scale in order to produce something as successful as Cirque du Soleil.”

Clearly, structured training to a recognised standard is the foundation of any profession. But, in the colourful world of the sawdust ring, there will always be room for those who simply want to run away with the circus.

Helyne Edmonds did just that. From school, she got a job in a circus box office then filled a vacancy when an animal groom left the show. Today, at 32, she’s a director of the Great British Circus, and the UK’s only lady tiger trainer.
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CIRCUS MANIA FOR A TENNER!

(Postage-free!)

But what’s life really like in the circus? To find that out you’ll have to read my new book, Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus.

You’ll find it in all good bookshops price £14.99. But the good news is you can save a jumbo-size £5 by ordering direct from Peter Owen Publishers for just £10 postage free.

To buy Circus Mania for a tenner, simply call 020 7370 6093 or send a cheque or postal order to:
Peter Owen Publishers
73 Kenway Road
London SW5 ORE

Circus Mania Special Offer

2010-04-20T04:07:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA! OUT NOW!
Special offer price £10 post-free

It’s here! After a year of writing, researching and waiting for it to roll off the printers, it was wonderful to walk into the launch at Circus Space on World Circus Day and see piles of freshly minted Circus Mania! books laid out on the table!
My hat is off to Peter Owen Publishers for the fantastic job they’ve done with Circus Mania! The cover looks superb, the colour photos have printed beautifully and the opening pages (including the traditional welcome “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...”) perfectly capture the atmosphere of going to the circus.
Circus Space, the UK’s leading circus school, also proved magnificent hosts for the book launch. The building itself, a former Victorian power station, is hugely atmospheric and the room we were in had doors and windows opening directly into two enormous training spaces, so we had a backdrop of people swinging on the trapeze, walking the tight-wire and climbing ropes - as well as plenty of students casually strolling about juggling.
It was the first really hot day of the year and doors opened onto a sunny terrace, adding to the relaxed and happy time had by all.
Circus grandee Gerry Cottle came along and made a nice speech saying how he thought Circus Mania! would be a good boost to the circus industry. Dr Haze, the undead ringmaster from the Circus of Horrors was there, too, and graciously signed books for the fans.
Finally, I must thank everyone who came along to buy the very first books off the press. As I inscribed the books for them, “May all your days be Circus Days!”
If you weren’t there, the good news is that you can buy Circus Mania! direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special offer price of £10, postage-free within the UK (£2.50 postage the rest of the world) and save a massive £4.99 off the recommended retail price. Just call Peter Owen Publishers (Sales) on 0207 370 6093 or email sales@peterowen.com

CIRCUS MANIA!

2010-03-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA!
- THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... it’s certainly been CIRCUS MANIA over the last couple of weeks as proof pages, corrections, pictures and indexes fly back and forth like trapeze artists between myself and the publishers in the final countdown to getting the Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus off to the printers.

All I can say is that the folks at Peter Owen Ltd have pulled out all the stops on this one. From the page lay-out to the cover, the book is going to look amazing. As for the content... modesty forbids me reaching for the superlatives... but if you want to know what life in the circus is REALLY like, be ready to have your mind blown!

Circus Mania will be launched on - well, when else, but World Circus Day! That’s April 17. Between 5pm - 7pm we’ll be at Circus Space, Coronet Street, N1.

Circus Space is Britain’s Number One circus training facility. It’s the only place you can get a degree in circus skills and it’s the place the stars go to keep fit. It’s also located in a hugely atmospheric Victorian power station in the heart of hip and happening Hoxton.

The launch party will be in the foyer, with windows opening onto the training areas, so expect a backdrop of trapeze and wire walking. Gerry Cottle will be there, along with other circus stars, so it’s a unique opportunity to get Circus Mania signed not only by yours truly but by some of the people in the book.

The launch promises to be unlike any other book launch, so if you want to come along, just roll up, roll up on the day. If you can’t make the launch, just click on the Buy Circus Mania button up there on the right, or order it from Amazon or any high street bookshop.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Also on the Circus Mania front, thanks to Lynne Hackles and Writing Magazine for running a very flattering interview with me in the April issue, which is just out.

And grab a copy of The Stage in the week beginning Thursday April 8. It’s a special magazine format edition and includes a couple of articles penned by yours truly - one on Brian Austen, the man behind the Chinese and Moscow State Circuses, and another on circus training in the UK, which includes details of Zippos travelling Academy of Circus Arts, Gerry Cottle’s new full-time adult circus skills courses which he’s launching at Wookey Hole this year, and of course, Circus Space. But, of course, you can find out all about Circus Space when you come to the launch of CIRCUS MANIA!

Circus Mania Launch

2010-02-03T14:20:00.001-08:00

ROLL UP, ROLL UP!
For Circus Mania Launch Party

Peter Owen Publishers have announced that Circus Mania! - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus will be launched to press and public at Circus Space in London on World Circus Day, April 17.

Circus Space is, of course, the UK’s foremost circus training and rehearsal space and is situated in an amazingly atmospheric former Victorian electricity generating station in hip and happening Hoxton.

The launch party will be in the foyer, which has huge windows opening onto the towering Combustion Chamber and Generating Chamber training spaces, so expect to be surrounded by people on the trapeze and tightrope. We‘re also expecting a big turnout of circus folk from some of Britain‘s best known circuses.

The event is free to the public, so just roll up, roll up on the day if you’d like to buy a copy of Circus Mania! and have it signed by yours truly, the author, or any number of the people in the book who are likely to be in attendance.

The party will be late afternoon and early evening on April 17, which is a Saturday. The exact time will be announced shortly, so check this space for details nearer the time.

With six weeks of circus events, films and talks running concurrently at the Roundhouse Circus Fest in April and May, London will be buzzing with circus stars and fans, so the launch couldn’t come at a more timely juncture.

I hope to see you there (Clown shoes, red noses, stilts and custard pies strictly optional!)

2010-01-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

GERRY COTTLE TOUR 2010

First of all a big thank you to Gerry Cottle for taking a sneak preview of Circus Mania! and providing some great quotes for the cover (See below the title of this blog, above). Cottle was a great help to me while writing Circus Mania!, not least in setting up for me a great, exclusive, in-depth interview with his former business partner, Brian Austen, the man behind the Chinese State Circus and Moscow State Circus.

Austen is a shy giant of the circus scene. He’s seldom given a press interview in 30 years and admitted, “I probably wouldn’t have done it if Gerry hadn’t called me.” The fact that Cottle did call him, when there was of course nothing in it for him personally, is typical of the man’s attitude towards not just his own circus but circus generally: what American troupers call being ‘with it and for it.’

Cottle is, of course, the best known showman of the past 40 years - the Billy Smart, PT Barnum, John Ringling or Lord Sanger of his generation. His enduring influence became clear while writing Circus Mania! in that there is hardly anybody in the industry who either hasn’t worked with him or is related to him.

The great news is that this March finds Gerry Cottle launching his first all-new circus in a decade.

It’s exactly 50 years since Gerry turned his back on suburban life as a stockbroker’s son growing up in Cheam and, at the age of 15, ran away with Robert Brothers circus. From humble beginnings as an apprentice, he taught himself to clown, stilt-walk and, most importantly, the tricks of running a circus.

By 1970, he and his business partner Brian Austen had started the first Cottle & Austen Circus. With no cash to buy animals, the owners and their wives performed nearly all the acts themselves. From the beginning, however, Cottle proved a natural publicity magnet. The circus was featured in a BBC documentary, The Philpott Files, and on the cover of the Radio Times as ‘The smallest greatest show on earth’.

By the end of the decade, Cottle & Austen’s Circus had become Britain’s biggest circus, thanks in part to a policy of monopolising London’s parks, and providing the big top venue for Saturday night TV variety show Seaside Special.

Cottle and Austen went on to promote the Chinese State Circus and Moscow State Circus, which were soon established as the UK’s most successful shows, and Cottle became a founding partner in the Circus of Horrors, which has been another of the biggest circus success stories of the past decade.

In 2003, Cottle sold Austen his share in the Chinese and Moscow circuses so that he could buy the tourist attraction Wookey Hole. Proving that old adage that you can shake the sawdust off your shoes but you can’t shake it out of your heart, however, Cottle never gave up his love of the circus. At Wookey, he swiftly established a circus museum and a circus school for local kids.

When I interviewed him for Circus Mania! he said his love of circus was greater than it has ever been. He sees every circus that comes within range and will talk knowledgeably and passionately about any show you mention.

That he has decided to launch a new all-human travelling big top show, commencing March 18 is undoubtedly the biggest news to hit the circus world in many years. Setting out in the West Country, before travelling to London and the rest of the country, Cottle says the show will travel in an 800-seat tent, feature magic and Las Vegas-style dancers and appeal to all the family.

“The circus scene has been in the doldrums a bit, lately,” Gerry told me at Christmas. If anyone can shake it up, that person is undoubtedly the unstoppable Gerry Cottle.

2009-12-30T04:40:00.000-08:00

DALEK MANIA!

What have the Daleks got to do with the circus? Not a lot, except that while I wondering what to call my new book I found myself gazing across the office at my Dalekmania calendar, and suddenly it came to me: Circus Mania!

Cut to the present and I’ve just written a short story set in the era of Dalekmania. It’s called My Dalek Days - a Dr Who-dunnit on a film set in the swinging 60s. It’s just been published by My Weekly (Jan 2, issue). They generously gave me a nice plug for Circus Mania at the bottom of the page. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the story. (Read it from behind the sofa if you wish...)
..........................................

MY DALEK DAYS

A Dr Who-dunnit in the swinging 60s

by Douglas McPherson
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Everyone wondered how the Daleks moved around. Some people thought they were remote controlled. But it was a lot less complicated than that.

Someone like me had to sit inside on a little bench, with my feet sticking through the bottom, and push the thing around on casters - all the while remembering to wiggle the eye stalk and the arm with the sink plunger on the end.

It was very cramped and dark inside, and could get pretty claustrophobic during a long day’s filming. Especially as you knew you couldn’t get out. It took two men to lift the top half into place, so once you were in, you were trapped.

Visibility through the wire mesh grill was very poor and communication was difficult. You could hear what the actors and director were saying, but nobody could make out what you were saying unless they put their ear right up against the grill.

We didn’t do the voices, you see. All those shouts of “Ex-ter-min-ate!” were done by an actor by the side of the set, with a funny little gadget to change his voice. We just had to remember to press a button that made the lights on the top our heads flash while he was talking.

It was a fantastic break for me, straight out of drama school in 1966. The Daleks were almost as big as The Beatles. Dalekmania they called it, and everyone was saying the metal monsters’ second big screen adventure was going to be the biggest film of the year.

Peter Cushing was playing Dr Who with Bernard Cribbins as his sidekick, and it was a wonderful opportunity to work with such great actors - even if no one was ever going to see my face!
On the posters, the Daleks were given a bigger billing than Dr Who. But on set, it was a very different story. Us humble operators were at the bottom of the pecking order.

Not only did we seldom get to socialise with the stars, once we were inside our Daleks everyone seemed to forget we were there at all.

At lunchtime the cast and crew would wander off to the canteen and I’d be trundling after them, waving my plunger and desperately trying to make them hear my muffled cries of, “Hey, let me out of here!”

During the breaks between scenes, people would stand around chatting right next to me as if I wasn’t there. Sometimes they’d even lean on my casing as if it were just another piece of scenery.

At first I thought it was a bit rude. But after a couple of days, I realised I was overhearing more studio gossip than I would as an ordinary extra.

Most of it was spread by Ruby, a mother hen of a wardrobe mistress, with a huge beehive hairdo, who had worked in the studio for years. Whenever you heard her click-clacking across the studio floor in her high heels and skirt that was far too short for her age, you knew you were about to hear some piece of salacious news.

Even when Ruby was on her knees adjusting an actor’s costume between takes, a mouthful of dressmaker’s pins didn’t stop her expressing her opinions.

Most of Ruby’s news bulletins during the first few days’ filming concerned a young make-up assistant called Tina.

Tina was a shy little thing with a Cilla Black haircut - one of those girls who don’t seem to know how pretty they are. But I’d noticed her right away. Well, you couldn’t miss her, really. She came right onto the middle of the set, between shots, and stood on a little stool in her mini-skirt so she could reach Peter Cushing’s head and make sure his shock of white hair was properly teased up for the mad scientist look.

She didn’t notice me, of course. I was inside my Dalek and by the time the day’s filming was over, she was gone.

Generally, Tina tended to stay in the make-up room. And, unfortunately, us Daleks didn‘t need make-up.

In any case, Tina had a boyfriend, a bit-part actor called Steve, who was playing one of the Daleks’ semi-human accomplices, the Robomen - although, if Ruby was to be believed, their relationship was far from happy.

“That poor girl!” Ruby said in a particularly shocked voice one morning.

Twisting around inside my Dalek, I saw through the grill that she was talking to Alf, the burly foreman in charge of building the sets.

Glancing over her shoulder to check no one else could hear her - and clearly assuming my Dalek was empty - Ruby added in a lower voice, “She told him she was expecting, and you know what he did? He laughed in her face and said he wanted nothing more to do with her!”

Alf made an angry noise and put his fist on top of my dome with a heavy thud.

“It’s time somebody took that young man to one side and told him a few home truths,” Alf said forthrightly.
..........................

During the second week, we filmed on location around some abandoned warehouses. It made a change to be working outside but created some problems.

On rough pavements, the Daleks wobbled and shook like shopping trolleys, and in cobbled alleys we couldn‘t move them at all. Alf had to lay plywood tracks for us to roll smoothly along.

While we waited for Alf to complete the task, I watched Steve clowning about as if he were the star, rather than a bit part. He took particular delight in flirting with a slinky-looking continuity girl right in front of poor Tina.

I noticed that Alf was watching him, too, and seemed to hammer in his nails a little more forcefully.
.............................

When I arrived for work the following morning, a real-life drama was in full swing. As well as the usual trucks full of lights and cameras, the road to the warehouses was blocked with police cars and an ambulance.

One of my fellow Dalek operators spotted me and said, “I don’t think we’ll be needed today. One of the Robomen was found dead in an alley. It looks like he fell out of a loading bay - from two floors up.”

At the catering van, Ruby had a different theory.

As I stood behind her and asked for a mug of tea, she told Alf, “I reckon Tina arranged to meet him up there - then gave him a push. I certainly wouldn’t blame her.”

“It could have been anyone who shoved him off,” said Alf, between bites of a bacon sandwich. “I heard he owed a lot of money - some of it to some pretty nasty people.”

Looking around, I saw Tina on the other side of the road, a check coat hugged tightly over her mini-dress. She looked distraught, and utterly alone, as if nobody knew what to say to her.

There wasn’t much I could say myself. But my heart went out to her.

On impulse, I took my untouched tea over and held it out to her.

As her pale blue eyes flicked up to meet mine, Tina looked surprised, but then grateful as she accepted the steaming mug.

As it turned out, there was no time to say anything because two men in trilby hats and dark coats had arrived meaningfully by Tina’s side.

“Morning, Miss,” said one of them, “My name’s Inspector Jewel. I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you a few questions.”
..............................

The next day, I was back in my Dalek. Steve’s part in the film was too small for his death to threaten the picture and, having already lost a lot of time, the director wanted to press on.

The atmosphere on set was tense, though - and the rumour mill was working overtime.

“They kept her at the police station all night,” Ruby told Alf, as he dusted down my Dalek shell. “But they had to let her go because she had a watertight alibi.”

“Well I never believed it was Tina,” Alf said gruffly. “But I’ll tell you this much, Ruby, whoever did it, did her a favour. She’s better off without that wrong ‘un.”

“You’re right there,” said Ruby. Then, more distantly, she said, “I wonder if she’ll keep the baby?”
........................................

Well, she did, and now he’s in his forties with two lovely children of his own.

They’re both mad about Dr Who, of course, and they could hardly believe it when they found out their granddad used to be a Dalek.

“Did you exterminate loads of people?” they asked enthusiastically.

“Loads!” I laughed.

Well, one, actually.

But even Tina doesn’t know that.

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Douglas McPherson is the author of Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus, coming soon from Peter Owen Ltd and available to order now from Amazon and all good online retailers.
END

2009-12-15T12:56:00.000-08:00

BIG FLOP?

You’d think so, from the custard pies the newspapers have hurled at the Beeb’s new circus sitcom? But is Big Top as bad as the critics would have us believe?

The first thing to say about Big Top is that it looks fantastic. The BBC borrowed Zippos’ number two tent, the smaller one which houses his Circus Academy, for the location filming, and the red, blue and yellow ‘top’ looks fabulous re-branded as Circus Maestro in the establishing shots between scenes.

Everything else in the series is immensely colourful, from the clowns’ costumes to the background detail in the backstage area where most of the action takes place. The caravan interiors are lovingly detailed and convincing, while Amanda Holden, naturally, looks great as ring-mistress, Lizzie.

Get past the eye candy, and it has to be said that the script is pretty silly. The characters are more pantomime than sitcom, the storylines are contrived, and too many of the jokes are thrown in for the sake of it, rather than arising naturally from the characters and situations.

Also, if Boyco the acrobat had been black or Asian instead of Eastern European, his portrayal would have achieved the cheapest ‘race’ laughs since It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.
Given such a starry cast and the comic potential of the setting, it’s a pity the producers didn’t make Big Top a more realistic comedy-drama; something like those old classics Lovejoy or Minder, or even Only Fools & Horses, where the laughs came out of broadly drawn but broadly believable characters doing broadly believable things.

(And, I’m sorry Big Top, but having Ruth Madoc’s character fake the kidnapping of her own dog to claim a reward didn’t strike me as something anyone would be likely to do in real life. To put such a story in the first episode set the believability bar worryingly low.)

Given the things that go on in the real life circus world, a more grown-up version of Big Top could have been brilliant.

But, having said all that, Big Top goes out at 7.30 when it will catch the kids audience. Kids won’t mind the cartoonish humour and, if it‘s their first taste of what a circus looks like, they may even ask their parents to take them along to the real thing.

That’s the best thing about Big Top. True to director Marcus Mortimer’s promise when I interviewed him earlier in the year (see first entry on this blog) the show may portray circus people as a bunch of clowns, but it doesn’t knock circus.

In the first episode, a member of the public actually tells the Circus Maestro crew that he’s just had the best evening’s entertainment he’s had for years. Given how easy it would have been for Big Top to have tipped a bucket of water down the clown trousers of the real big top, could the Beeb have given circus a better plug?

MEANWHILE.... what’s life like in the real big top? You’ll find out in Circus Mania of course (Order now, from the button up there on the right... etc, etc). But you can also read-all-about-it (“Extra! Extra!”) in a big feature I’ve written for Britain’s most up-beat tabloid, The Weekly News, in the shops now.

2009-12-01T03:29:00.000-08:00

CIRCUS MONDAO PANTO
- Oh yes it is!

As you drive along the A11, near Thetford in Norfolk, the sight of the light-bedecked Circus Mondao tent poking over the wall of the Elveden country estate like a well-lit Christmas tree is a welcome sight on a wintry day - and the show that awaits you inside the big top is a welcome alternative to the traditional theatre panto.

There have always been links between circus and pantomime, not least in the person of Joseph Grimaldi, the early 19th century panto star regarded as the father of modern clowning. Circus clowns are still nicknamed Joeys in his honour, and although Grimaldi never worked in a circus ring, he employed many elements of circus, such as performing animals on stage.

In previous eras, meanwhile, many circus stars, and their animals, found winter work in theatre pantomimes.

So although the idea of a circus putting on a panto may seem novel, it’s not without precedent, and the two genres combine extremely smoothly in this new show, which plays every day from now until January 3.

The story picks up where ordinary pantomimes end. Cinderella has married her Prince Charming, but now that the new has worn off her happy ever after, life for poor Cinders has reverted to domestic drudgery. To relieve her boredom, she asks her fairy godmother to conjure up a circus.

That’s about it, as far as plot is concerned. But, with little story to slow the proceedings, it’s action all the way as a string of high standard circus acts - silk, solo trapeze, aerial straps - are interspersed with panto routines featuring Alex Morley and Ian Jarvis as a pair of well costumed Ugly Sisters.

Panto’s traditional ‘ghost’ routine gets a literal lift from a flying spook that spirits one of the Ugly Sisters away into the roof, and there’s plenty of space in the big top for a very messy ‘slosh’ routine, starring the Uglies and Mondao’s regular clown, Bippo.

The beautiful, plumed spotted horses galloping through the sawdust, meanwhile, add to the impression that we’ve been whisked away to a magical dreamland.

Kids will love the parade of zebras, lamas, camels and Shetland ponies - and the chance to meet them in their own, smaller big top after the show - while dads will have their spirits lifted by the glamorous showgirls performing a can-can.

Perfectly timed to coincide with Amanda Holden’s Big Top on BBC1, this alternative to the traditional theatre panto is the perfect opportunity for a new audience to get their first taste of the real big top.

So roll up, roll up for the greatest Christmas show in Norfolk.

Information line: 07722 791777, Credit card booking: 01842 751975
www.circusmondao.co.uk

2009-11-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

CIRCUS MANIA MOUNTS

As we count down to the publication of Circus Mania, it seems like everyone is catching the circus bug, to judge by a couple of CDs sent my way for review.

New singer-songwriter Will Kevans (his parents should have called him Than...) has decorated the cover of his disc, Everything You Do, with an attractive montage of retro circus artwork: elephant, lion and polar bear on pedestals and so on.

No circus songs, but it’s an OK album. A rootsy pop outing somewhere between Squeeze and Dexy’s Midnight Runners.

Nashville piano man Phil Vassar, who visits the UK for the first time in January, has taken things even further, calling his latest release Travelling Circus and adorning it with paintings of himself kitted out as a ringmaster.

Again, there are no circus connections in the actual music, which is a pleasing combination of contemporary Nashville meets Billy Joel. A travelling circus is just the way Phil sees life as a touring musician.

“I always say to the band, let’s get this travelling circus on the road,” Vassar told me, in a phone call from Music City. But he admits to being a big fan of the sawdust circle: “Oh yeah. I always liked the fact that it’s so much bigger than life.”

Finally in this musical interlude, the best Christmas album I’ve ever heard is Gold And Green by another Nashville act, Sugarland. I particularly like their rock’n’roll version of Winter Wonderland. You know that line about building a snowman and pretending he’s Parson Brown? Well, strange as it seems, I never realised until now that there’s a second verse that runs: “In the meadow we can build and snowman and make believe that he’s a CIRCUS CLOWN....”

So thanks to Sugarland’s gorgeous Jennifer Nettles for bringing that to my attention.

Thanks, too, to My Weekly for running a nice advance plug for Circus Mania alongside the first instalment of my Christmas comedy crime serial, The Blue Rinse Brigade. Look out for it in stores now.

With the recent release of a film called Cirque de Freak, all these circus references are nicely paving the way for the publication of Circus Mania in the New Year. Why wait until after Christmas, though? You can order now from Amazon, Tesco.com and all other good online stores.

Chinese Takeaway

2009-11-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

CHINESE TAKEAWAY
- and Circus Mania on LBC

Moving a circus is a big deal - 13 drivers, 20 trucks and 22 loads of a big deal in the case of the Chinese State Circus. The man in charge of the operation is 34-year-old Ingo Dock, who has been a circus man all his life. He grew up on Uncle Sam’s American Circus where his father drove the lorries before him.

I spoke to Ingo recently for a feature that will be in Truck & Driver magazine in March to coincide with the publication of Circus Mania, and he told me all about life on the road, from the hazards of waterlogged grounds to travellers who have taken over a site before the circus arrives.

“It happens about once a year,” Ingo sighed, “But on the whole the Gypsies know not to mix it with the circus because we‘ve got forklifts to get them off...”

I also talked about circus transport, this time in days gone by, with retired ringmaster George Pinder, who’s family have been circus for around 200 years.

George is full of amazing stories about the introduction of steam generated electricity in the big top in the 1890s, and the move from horse-drawn transport to lorries between the two World Wars. He supplied some great pictures which will hopefully be in Best of British magazine in the New Year also. There’s even a poster for his great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Ord’s circus, in 1817, which I hope to include in Circus Mania.

George, incidentally, is the uncle of Carol and Gracie, the sisters who run Circus Mondao. Mondao are one circus who won’t be taking a break over the winter. They’re staging a circus-pantomime at Elvendon, near Thetford, in Norfolk from November 27 until early January.

Other Christmas circus shows will include Zippos in London and, of course, the Hippodrome in Great Yarmouth.

CIRCUS MANIA NEWS

Have you noticed the new ‘Buy Circus Mania’ button over there on the right? Click on it for a look at the new Circus Mania page on the Peter Owen website.

On the subject of Circus Mania, it was nice to get an advance mention for the book on Steve Allen’s show on LBC97.3 this morning. Steve is a big circus fan apparently, so stay tuned to him for more Circus Mania news.

Confessions of a Nashville Circus Girl

2009-10-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

CONFESSIONS OF A NASHVILLE CIRCUS GIRL

There’s more to life than circuses... or so I distantly recall. When you spend a year writing a book about circus it tends to become a case of clowns to the right of me, elephants to the left, here I am stuck in the middle with Gerry Cottle.

When I’m not writing about circus, however, I write about music. Sometimes I even combine the two, as I did when I got to interview the massively successful American songwriter Gretchen Peters about her new Best Of, which she titled after her favourite song... Circus Girl.

Here’s an extract of my feature in Country Music People, in which Gretchen explains her affinity with the girl who walks the wire in the centre ring.

She even put a drawing of a big top and a Victorian trapeze flyer on the cover.
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GRETCHEN PETERS - Girl On A Wire

I’ve witnessed some emotionally charged musical moments in my time...

But the only piece of music to give me the full lump in the throat, grit in my eyes, pass me the Kleenex, excuse-me-while-I-just-hyperventilate-a-bit effect, is one I heard a couple of weeks ago. You might not recognise the 100-year-old melody by its title, Entrance of the Gladiators, and you’ve almost certainly never heard of its composer, the unfortunately surnamed Julius Fucik. But if I said “circus music” to you, I guarantee you or anyone else on the planet would be able to dum-dum-dummy-dummy-dum-dum-da-da it to me.

Next to Happy Birthday To You, it must be one of the most widely known pieces of music ever written. It should sound incredibly naff.

Quite why it hit me so hard and unexpectedly was probably because I was sitting in a big, cold tent, with trampled mud and grass beneath my feet, a circle of golden sawdust in front of me, and a whiff of camel wee in the air.

The circus can have that effect on you, as Gretchen Peters found when she took her young daughter to a big top for the first time.

“My daughter was maybe seven or eight and I realised she was getting to that age where she was sort of becoming jaded about things. The circus came to town and I wanted her to see it while she was still young enough to get the magic of it, before she grew up enough to see through it.

“She loved it. But what I really wasn’t prepared for was how wonderful and evocative it was for me. I was really, really inspired by it. The tawdriness as well as the magic. The juxtaposition of both of those things. I went home that night and wrote Circus Girl.”

‘I work the high wire in the centre ring,
Defying gravity, that’s my thing...’

When she came to compile her new Best Of, Gretchen had no hesitation in calling the album Circus Girl.

“There are very few songs that you can play for 15 years that you don’t get tired of at some point. Even the ones that sometimes people really like, you need to give them a rest. But that is one of the very few songs that I have never got tired of playing.

“I’ve always thought it was my most autobiographical song. The character is so very close to home. As a metaphor for the music business... I just thought that metaphor was irresistible.”

‘Believe me darlin’ it’s a lonely world,
It ain’t easy for a circus girl.’
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Gretchen is best known for writing ‘Independence Day,’ a 90s hit which remains the career song of country superstar Martina McBride. But Gretchen is a good singer in her own right, and her Best Of is recommended to all fans of thoughtful singer-songwriters.

I certainly think she’s nailed the life of a girl in the big top. Here’s how Circus Girl ends:
‘So I climb that ladder right on up to the sky,
I don’t look down and I don’t ask why,
And just for a moment I’m on top of the world,
Just for a moment... I’m a circus girl.’
END

2009-10-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

The issue of animals in circuses will always be a thorny one. In case you missed my feature on the subject in The Stage last week, here it is. Let me know your views on the subject.
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Beneath the star speckled canvas sky of the big top, poor old Neli is being exploited terribly. One minute she’s being suspended by her ankle, without harness or safety net, above a head first drop to certain death.

Ten minutes later, she’s got a fleece over her costume and is selling teas from the refreshment wagon.

But Neli can‘t complain. The Bulgarian former nurse chose this life when she married acrobat Stefan and formed the Duo Stafaneli (Stefan and Neli, geddit?).

It’s Neli’s four-legged co-stars that have put the Great British Circus in the national news, specifically Sonja, Delhi and Vana Mana, the first elephants to perform in a UK circus ring for a decade - alongside director Martin Lacey’s existing menagerie of Bengal tigers, camels and horses.

When the pachyderms made their debut earlier this year, Dr Rob Atkinson, head of the RSPCA’s wildlife department, called it, “A body blow for animal welfare in this country.”

David Davies, chairman of the Circus Friends Association welcomed the return, commenting, “From my point of view, a circus without animals is not a true circus.”

But was stirring up headlines such as the Daily Mail’s ‘Police On Standby In War Over The Elephants,’ the direction circus should be heading in?

Human shows such as Cirque du Soleil have taken two decades to make circus as fashionable and successful as it has ever been. So wasn’t the return of elephants a step back to the bad old days when the widely held belief that circuses were cruel came close to killing off the art form?

As both circus fan and animal lover, it was with very mixed feelings that I attended the Great British Circus on its first stop of the season, in March.

The show I witnessed assuaged many of my fears and prejudices. True, I winced at the horse trainer’s party piece of making the animals take an awkward one legged ’bow.’

I could also have done without the ‘elephant pyramid,’ in which two pachyderms stand on tubs with their front legs resting on the back of the third. Such majestic creatures don’t need to be oversold with gimmicks.

On the whole, though, the animals appeared in excellent condition. The presentation was relaxed and gentle, and I could see the value of a show that allowed us to get so close to so many exotic beasts. The children in the audience were especially enthralled.

Talking to Lacey and his fellow tiger trainer Helyne Edmonds afterwards, it was impossible to doubt that they were primarily motivated by their love for their animals, and that their training methods were based on patience and reward, as they claimed.

“It’s organised play,” said Lacey. “If they didn’t enjoy it, they wouldn’t do it. That’s why any suggestion of cruelty is spurious. You have to be rather nice to them.”

I have to say he convinced me.

Then, just when I had begun telling everyone I knew that it was safe to go back to the circus, the Great British Circus burst back into the news amid a rash of even worse headlines.

“Beaten and hit with hooks, the cruel fate of our circus elephants,” screamed the Daily Express, as television news broadcast undercover film made by welfare group Animal Defenders International (ADI) that showed chained elephants being beaten in their stable.

The Great British Circus responded with a statement that the groom seen “behaving inappropriately” in the footage was dismissed as soon as his actions came to the attention of the management (which was three months before ADI released the film).

The Circus added that it was considering installing its own surveillance cameras to prevent future lapses of animal care.

But the damage had already been done.

Lacey and other animal trainers would argue that the malpractice of one groom should not be used to judge an entire profession.

But when it comes to the public perception of circus, one bad apple really does taint the taste of the entire barrel.

For fans like me, who want to believe that animals are safe in the circus, the expose feels like a betrayal of trust that will not quickly be forgotten. However well kept the animals appear to be, and however nice the trainers, will we ever again be able to watch an animal show completely assured that everything is as it should be behind the curtain?

For the opponents of circus, meanwhile, there is now forever on YouTube irrefutable justification for their picket lines outside the circus gates and evidence to back their on-going calls for a government ban.

It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for Lacey. While other circuses gave up animals in the face of opposition from the welfare groups, Lacey has campaigned for decades to prove that circuses are capable of looking after their beasts.

It’s interesting that the GBC’s press statement repeatedly stresses that the elephants are appearing under contract and not actually owned or trained by the circus.

Perhaps by hiring a German troupe of elephants, complete with its own trainers and grooms, Lacey inadvertently imported lower standards of animal care than his own.

If so, he is presumably kicking himself for scoring a massive own goal for both the Great British Circus and animal circuses as a whole.

Bolivia recently became the first country to ban all animals, domestic and wild, from the circus ring.

It would be a shame if Britain followed suit and lost its last few remaining examples of circuses keeping alive an animal-based tradition established by the British equestrian Philip Astley in 1768.

But if animal circuses are ever to be rehabilitated as a guilt-free form of mainstream entertainment, they will have to work a lot harder than they have to clean up their act in the eyes of the public.

They will have to learn to act, both in the ring and backstage, as if the cameras of a hostile animal rights lobby are on them at all times - as indeed they may be.

The lessons from Mary Chipperfield’s conviction for cruelty ten years ago (on the evidence of undercover film) have clearly not been learned.

But will even the most stringent codes of practise, designed to protect both the animals from abuse and their keepers from the suspicion of abuse, ever repair the damage caused by the occasional highly publicised instance of mistreatment, such as this latest?

Sadly, it seems that for as long as circuses have animals, the spectre of cruelty, real or suspected, will always be the elephant in the room.

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NEXT BLOG in a couple of weeks: CONFESSIONS OF A NASHVILLE CIRCUS GIRL

Circus Mania on Amazon

2009-10-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS MANIA on AMAZON!
& Elephants in The Stage!

Well, it will be a while before it hits the shops, but it’s great to see the cover of Circus Mania on Amazon. Check it out and let me know what you think. I think Nick at Peter Owen has done a fantastic job with the design and I’ve had a tremendous positive response from everyone who’s taken a look at it - some people have even placed an order!

A couple of people have asked who the aerialist on the cover is - and I know he hasn’t been shot from the most flattering angle! - but I like the mystery of this faceless performer against such a deeply atmospheric, almost outer-space-like background, so I’m not going to tell you; you’ll have to buy the book and find out then! If you recognise him, though, let me know. Clue: he’s flying through as much water as air.

It was also nice to get an advance plug for Circus Mania in The Stage this week, along with a full-colour double-page spread of elephant, tiger and horse photos from The Great British Circus. It’s in the shops until Wednesday if you want a nice pictorial souvenir of the year the elephants came back to Britain.

CIRCUS STARS OF TOMORROW

2009-09-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

CIRCUS STARS OF TOMORROW
- Free Show

If you want to see the circus stars of tomorrow for free, get along to Hampstead Heath at 2pm on Friday, October 2, for the Academy of Circus Arts Graduation Show.

Martin Burton, of Zippos Circus, set up the Academy after booking a trapeze act trained in a conventional circus school. They had a great act, but because they’d trained in a place where the trapeze was permanently set up, they didn’t know how to rig their own apparatus. They then proved unable to adapt to life on the road in a caravan.

Zippo’s solution was to start a travelling circus school. Each week, the students not only put on a show for the public, they build up and pull down the big top, drive the lorries to the next town, put up posters, work in the box office and do all the other things that are part of life in the sawdust ring.

The result is graduates the world’s circuses can’t wait to snap up. The graduation show is a unique gala performance devised and presented by the students and teachers - and you can see it for FREE, in the Zippos big top at East Heath Road, Hampstead on Friday, October 2 at 2pm.

Seating is unreserved, so just turn up - sorry, I meant to say: roll up, roll up - in good time to get the best seat.

2009-09-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

MUST CIRCUSES HAVE ELEPHANTS?
Or clowns, for that matter?
..............................

According to the old saying, which may or may not have been coined by Phineas T Barnum himself, a circus is not a circus without clowns, peanuts and elephants.

Well, the elephants made a nostalgic reappearance at the Yarmouth Hippodrome over the summer, if only in an opening archive film sequence that quickly established what the show, Celebrate, was celebrating: Peter Jay’s 30 years at the helm of Britain’s oldest purpose-built circus building.

It was nice to see the old rubber mules, as American troupers used to call them, and reminded me of Peter telling me fond stories about the pachyderms trouping off down the beach to swim in the sea between shows.

Zip back to the present, and not only have the animals long departed the Hippodrome, but this year, the clowns have as well. At the very least, they left their red noses and hoop-waisted trousers backstage in Clown Alley.

The laughs this year were provided by a double act of ringmaster Jack Jay (Peter’s son, taking the straight man role) and young comedian Johnny Mac. What they did was clowning by another name. Both the banter and high percentage of physical slapstick were strongly influenced by Clive Webb and Danny Adams, who ruled summer seasons at the Hippodrome for the past six years, before heading off to Butlins for the entirety of 2009.
Danny and Clive would have been proud of the young pretenders’ use of the Hippodrome’s water feature, including a particularly inspired gag that saw the well-upholstered Jack jump into a boat rowed by Johnny - and fall right through the bottom.

For all this clowning, though, there was not a scrap of motley and slap in sight. So, do 21st century clowns (and circuses) need their red noses, any more than big tops still need elephants (or peanuts, for that matter)?

Peter Jay makes the familiar point that a lot of people are scared of clowns: “When we had the clown posing for photographs outside, we’d have kids in tears before they came in.”

If nothing else, the plain clothes clowning of Jack and Johnny reminds us that many comedy double acts, from Laurel and Hardy to Cannon and Ball, are clowns without the noses.

Indeed, I went to the Seaside Special on Cromer Pier recently and was struck by the similarity of father and son comics Simmons & Simmons to Danny & Clive - the only difference being that the former wore normal clothes instead of ringmaster and clown clobber.

And yet... Simmons & Simmons were on a stage in a theatre, in a traditional variety show. Peter Jay tells me he sees the Hippodrome becoming less of a circus show than a variety show with circus acts in it.

But the fact remains that a circus ring, in a big top, is a very different environment to a theatre. It’s often bigger, for one thing. The exaggeration of colourful ringmaster jackets and clown clothes helps to get the show across to people who may be sitting some distance from the action.

And shouldn’t everything about a circus be bigger, bolder, more colourful, more glamorous and more exaggerated than real life, anyway?

Let me know what you think.

In the meantime, all this talk about clowns has got me thinking: who is Britain’s funniest clown? To find out, stay tuned to Circus Mania. (Or add your own suggestions)

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COMING NEXT: Circus Mania will be back at the Hippodrome on the weekend of Sept 19 and 20 for the Out There International Festival of Street Arts And Circus... which will include a very daring high wire walk from the roof of the Hippodrome to an observation tower on the prom!

2009-08-28T12:45:00.000-07:00

ROLL UP, ROLL UP!

For a sneak peak behind the scenes of the BBC's new circus sitcom.

..............................................

As I exclusively revealled in The Stage, the circus in BBC1’s new sitcom, Big Top, was very nearly called Zippos, after the real-life circus where it was filmed.

According to Zippos owner, Martin Burton, “I sent a memorable email saying that might be possible unless there were drunken chorus girls and badly behaved clowns. An equally memorable email came back saying, ‘There’s all of that and much more...’ So I said in that case we’d better not call it Zippos, and we re-branded everything as Circus Maestro.”

Starring sitcom royalty Tony Robinson and Ruth Madoc alongside Britain’s Got Talent host Amanda Holden, who stars as ring-mistress Lizzie, Big Top promises to do for circuses what Hi-De-Hi did for holiday camps.

Producer and director Marcus Mortimer, of Big Bear Films, recalls the origins of the show, which will be the flagship of BBC1‘s autumn schedule.

“We’d just had a lot of success with My Hero, about a superhero living near Greenford, and the broadcasters said they’d really like an ensemble piece for a mainstream audience,” says Mortimer, who‘s other successes include Jonathan Creek.

“Our head of development, Susie McIntosh, came to a meeting and said, ‘How about a circus?’ And we all went, ‘Do you know? That’s never been done before.’ Nobody has done a comedy, or even a drama, in this country about a circus. Which is absolutely extraordinary.”

To script the series, Big Bear turned to My Hero writer Daniel Peak.

“Daniel is one of the best of the best of the new, young writers,” says Mortimer. “And, amazingly, he turned out to be a big circus fan.

“The BBC asked us to do a read and at that read we had Amanda Holden, Tony Robinson, John Thomson, who plays the clown... everybody turned up. All the actors loved the parts we wanted them to play and about six days later the controller said, ‘I’ll have a series, please.’

“I think people were genuinely fired up by the sense of colour and fun and that element of family entertainment that perhaps hasn’t been around that much lately. A lot of comedies are post-nine o‘clock. They wanted something at 8.30 and we said, ‘Let‘s give ‘em a circus.’”
Inevitably, there are those who wonder if Big Top will portray the circus industry in a bad light.

According to veteran showman Gerry Cottle, “The trouble is that whenever you see a circus on television, the boss is always a crook, with a silver waistcoat and an earring, like David Essex in All The Fun Of The Fair.”

The premise of Big Top is that ring-mistress Lizzie has taken over running the circus because her father, the owner, is in jail for fraud.

But, according to Mortimer, “We’re not having a pop at circuses, in the same way that Hi-De-Hi was not having a pop at holiday camps. Maplin’s Holiday Camp was a great, fun place to be. Big Top is about a circus that is struggling to exist in the current climate, but they always manage to pull something out of the hat because they’re actually a good circus.”
Most of the action in Big Top takes place backstage and was filmed in front of a studio audience.

“It’s a bit like Hi-De-Hi,” says Mortimer. “You didn’t see that much of the knobbly knees competitions. Mostly you were in the offices and chalets. But, of course, you do have to show what goes on in the tent, so we went to Zippos and said, ‘Can we borrow your big top?’”
Burton set up a number of circus stunts for the programme, including a scene in which Amanda Holden is strapped to a revolving knife-thrower’s board.

“She needed a bit of hand-holding before she got involved with that, and I can’t say I blame her,” chuckles Burton, who adopted the name Zippo, from the lighter, as a fire-eating clown and street entertainer, in the 1970s.

Although Burton supplied a knife thrower, he didn’t throw the knives at Amanda for real.
“It’s television,” says Burton. “But we did strap her on and spin her around for real.”
Another action sequence involved a dog chasing John Thompson’s clown onto the flying trapeze, where his feet catch fire.

“It was totally implausible, but we had great fun rigging it,” says Burton. “And before you ask, they booked the dog and no, it couldn’t climb the bloody ladder! If I’d booked the dog, they’d have got a dog that could climb the ladder.”

Bruce Mackinnon had a stunt double for his onscreen tumbling as the Eastern European acrobat Boyco. But he prepared for the role by spending an afternoon walking the tightrope at London’s circus school, Circus Space.

“Once, with my arms flailing like mad, I got from one end to the other. You read stories of old tightrope walkers or trapeze artists, and it’s such a poetic thing to them. So it was nice to get a taste of that - although it’s one thing to be just a couple of feet above the ground and another to know there’s nothing beneath you but death. I think that would be a lot harder... or maybe easier!” the actor chuckles.

Did Zippo share Cottle’s reservations about they way circus would be portrayed in the series?

“I’ve had a very long career working with television companies and I’m very aware that television does what it does in order to get ratings,” says Burton, who also recently lent his tent to a forthcoming episode of the ITV series Married, Single, Other.

“I suspected not everything would be as positive towards circus as I might like and I’m sure there will be a few die-hard circus fans who will be outraged and say it mis-represents circus.

“But I ignore all that. Because the truth of the matter is that if you ask the average six, seven or eight-year-old today what a circus is, they probably don’t know. But I’m sure after this programme they will know. I just think it’s great that circus is back on telly.”
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If you want to read more backstage gossip on the making of Big Top, you’ll have to wait for Circus Mania the book, which Peter Owen Publishers are currently editing into something coherent and which will be winging its way to a bookshop near you very soon.
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In the meantime, does anyone know why it’s Zippos rather than Zippo’s?
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NEXT POST IN TWO WEEKS: MUST CIRCUSES HAVE ELEPHANTS?