Earlier this year a series of emails and subsequent discussions on Facebook prompted my father and I to write and research on a unique but relatively short-lived wild animal act known as the "Bounce" (aka the bouncing lions or the bouncer wagon). It...

On Monday 2 November the Paul O’Grady Show presented a feature on circus. My parents have supplied a lot of animals for the show, but for some reason we were overlooked. Anyway, among the guests was none other than Ida Rosaire, the youngest member of...

Here is an extract from Alan Ashby's excellent new book on British postcards during the golden age of the zoo. As you can see in the examples below, Alan has done his best to present the postcards in their raw form. I particularly like this touch. The...

I am delighted to announce the release of Alan Ashby's new book on historical zoo postcards "We We Went to the Zoo Today... The Golden Age of Zoo Postcards". This book is a wonderful illustration of the bygone years of the zoo - both good and bad- in...

The bouncer wagon investigation persists, as does the controversy. At the time when I initially started posting up information here I received feedback from fellow circus people who weren't sure whether or not their relations had worked this rather...