Walking the tightrope

There aren’t so many circuses in town these days, but the big top’s enduring appeal hints at a deeper source of inspiration for today’s children, says Emma Carroll

Nostalgia, as the joke goes, ain’t what it used to be. Yet so much of our popular culture these days has its roots in the past. Game shows on Saturday night TV, Cath Kidston fabrics, baking cakes from scratch – chances are if you’ve been around a while you’ll have seen or done most of it before.

That said, when I decided to set my latest story, The Girl Who Walked On Air, in a circus, it wasn’t to relive some great childhood experience. Yes, I’d been to circuses – though only to see the horses. Yes, I’d read Enid Blyton and Noel Streatfield – though only had a vague recollection of doing so. And I didn’t even like candyfloss that much.

The conscious starting point for my story was Charles Blondin. In 1859, Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope. His success brought him great fame and fortune, though not everyone approved of his ‘stunts’. The media called him ‘a monkey’, ‘ a savage’ and ‘ a fool’. In 1861 when performing for the Prince of Wales, he included his seven-year-old daughter in the act. The crowd was horrified.

This real-life incident became a major plot thread in my book. The more I researched the era, the more similar stories I unearthed. The lengths performers went to in their bid for notoriety struck me as almost absurd. Nowadays we have health and safety laws. We want our danger without risk – and quite right too. Yet the writer in me was already rubbing my hands with glee: the circus was an absolute gift of a story setting.

So much drama! So much conflict! So much danger!

Blyton and Streatfield had obviously thought so too. Yet they weren’t the first to write circus-inspired stories: in Hard Times by Charles Dickens the heroine is a circus girl; and Hardy’s ‘villain’ hides in the circus in Far From the Madding Crowd. There are plenty more examples in 19th century literature. In the late 18th century, Phillip Astley created what we recognise today as the modern circus, yet the tradition itself dates back to Roman times.

As a writer, I understand the appeal. The Girl Who Walked On Air is set in the 1870s. No respectable child would have the freedoms my circus girl enjoys. Louie doesn’t go to school, she travels far and wide, she lives in a dangerous, exciting world.

There’s great reader appeal in circus stories too. In Victorian times there were hundreds of circuses touring the UK. Nowadays the number is somewhere between 25-30. Many children haven’t ever seen a real-life circus. Yet ask them to describe one and they’ll tell you about the big top, the acrobats, ringmasters and lion tamers. It’s as if it’s embedded in our psyche.

Why is this? For me, on one level the circus represents something very traditional. It’s a world full of tropes – the dashing ringmaster, the daring trapeze artists, the strong man, the fortune-teller, the beautiful horses. Everyone has a part to play. It’s also a place where strength and bravery reign supreme. The lion tamer always wins. The tightrope walker never falls. It’s an experience that reaffirms our physical and mental superiority.

And yet at the same time, the circus represents the complete opposite. It is a magical, exotic place where anything can happen. It’s a world most of us aren’t familiar with, yet for a short time we can see it up close. There’s danger, glamour, excitement, drama, all under one roof. And of course there are hardships – the long hours, the injuries, the tensions between performers. It all adds up to the one thing stories need: conflict.

For me it’s this more than anything that makes the circus so exciting as a story setting. There’s so much action and emotion in such a small physical space. It’s a pressure cooker waiting to explode.

Emma Carroll’s book, The Girl Who Walked On Air, is published by Faber and Faber.

About the author

Author Emma Carroll is a secondary school English teacher. She has also worked as a news reporter, an avocado picker and the person who punches holes into filofax paper.

Roll up!

If circus stories are here to stay, what relevance do they have to the classroom? Here are a few suggestions:

History

The history of circuses – Philip Astley in the 18th century, and Victorian circuses. Performers such as Blondin had fascinating lives, and photographs and news reports exist online of his Niagara crossing.

Art and design

Traditional circus posters. Circus costumes. Circus programmes. Big top designs.

Discussion

Animal rights in circuses – very recently a bill has been passed regarding wild animals. And how about prejudices towards travelling people?