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Roll up, roll up ! Prepare to be amazed and delighted, for never has there been a circus book like this before. The Roman circus, with its beauty and carnage; the medieval travelling show, with its mountebanks, tumblers, and exotic animals; Astley's, the eighteenth-century prototype of the modern circus - all are lovingly brought to life in this erudite yet witty study. Alan Wykes' lighthearted history of the circus concentrates on the astonishing, the unusual, and the little-known: an early form of the Big Top, for example, and the tale of the crocodile bought from the anatomist John Hunter. Phineas T. Barnum and Adah Isaacs Menken are both here, of course, but so are Count Lazard and Madame Zazel. And who would have thought that Brigham Young and Grace Darling once appeared under the Big Top? The reader will also learn some curious facts about the private life of the camel.
The many rare and lavish illustrations complement the text and take us behind the scenes of this fascinating world of tinsel and sawdust, whose glamour is perennial.
Alan Wykes fell under its spell at the age of eight. His very first visit to the circus inspired him to collect circus memorabilia, and his lifelong love of the circus has led him into the byways, nooks and crannies of its long history. The result is a splendidly personal and idiosyncratic book - a gallimaufry of anecdotes, always illuminating and diverting, wich will appeal to all who have ever sat enthralled by what is still the Greatest Show on Earth!