Giffords Circus

Each summer, in towns and villages around the Southwest, a small and rather glamorous part of the 1930s comes back to life. Started in 2000 by an Oxford graduate and her landscape designer husband, Giffords Circus tours Southwest England each summer in a caravan of traditional wagons (which they make themselves), putting on old-fashioned family entertainment, complete with acrobats, jugglers, and a clown who is actually funny. It evokes the traditional forms of entertainment common in the English countryside before the arrival of radio, cinema, and television, and has won fans from far and wide. Illustrated with a wealth of color photographs, the story of Giffords Circus goes behind the scenes at the not-so-big top, to show how the magic and mystery are created.