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Little Nell
Little Nell and the big topA public-school and Oxford education: this was the unlikely background for a new kind of circus ringmaster | ||||||||||
| It’s not what you would call a big top. | and fashion didn’t really get on. | such fun. Well, not always.” | ||||||||
| It could not even be described with any | 50 | For the past few weeks this | 80 | Nell has written a book, Josser, | ||||||
| accuracy as a medium-sized tent. In | assortment of Nell’s friends, some | about life under the big top and she | ||||||||
| fact, the white canvas top looked as if | dancers, a couple of fire jugglers and a | describes long hours, hard work and a | ||||||||
| 5 | it had kept the rain off dozens of | female acrobat, has been doing a tour | suspicious, close community. Josser is | |||||||
| village flower shows. But when you are | of Cotswold villages. The Hungry | the circus word for an outsider, and in | ||||||||
| launching a circus from scratch, you | 55 | Horse is a bit out of the way, and | 85 | the world of the big top they don’t | ||||||
| have to start somewhere. | audiences here have been hard to | come much more outside than Oxford- | ||||||||
| In her gap year before university | come by, but when the circus went to | educated Nell. | ||||||||
| 10 | Nell Stroud was looking for something | the Hay-on-Wye festival in May it was | “From the start they were quite | |||||||
| to do. She could easily have found a |
| curious as to why somebody with my | ||||||||
| nice occupation in PR or could have | 90 | upbringing and background wanted to | ||||||||
| cooked lunches in the City. But she | be in the circus. A couple of people | |||||||||
| went off to join a circus instead. Not | really cross-examined me about why I | |||||||||
| 15 | just on a whim, you understand, but | wasn’t just bumming around going to | ||||||||
| because her brother’s wife’s brother | nice parties, but I told them I love the | |||||||||
| had a cousin who ran a circus in | 95 | circus. It’s hard work, but I was | ||||||||
| America.’ | brought up to realise that you have to | |||||||||
| Anyway, she worked the spotlight, | work to do well.” | |||||||||
| 20 | sold ice creams, mucked out the | Nell’s father is a television director. | ||||||||
| stables of the animals and generally | Her mother, Char, was an enthusiastic | |||||||||
| enjoyed the experience so much that | 100 | horsewoman who suffered brain | ||||||||
| after earning her degree in English she | damage in a riding accident when Nell | |||||||||
| rejoined the circus and vowed that one | was 18. “If my mother had not had her | |||||||||
| 25 | day she would run her own. For years | accident, I would probably have thrown | ||||||||
| she kept this idea to herself. Now, | the towel in early on,” says Nell. “But | |||||||||
| aged 27, she has set up in partnership | 105 | because I had been through this most | ||||||||
| with her husband, Toti Gifford, a | horrific experience nothing else | |||||||||
| landscape architect. | packed out every night. “When you go | seemed quite as bad.” | ||||||||
| 30 | It has to be said that Giffords | 60 | to some of the big circuses, it’s like a | There are about 20 circuses | ||||||
| Circus is quite a modest operation. It | large, busy holiday camp, nowadays,” | touring Britain at the moment and | ||||||||
| began its most recent tour in | says Tim Hand, who builds the sets | 110 | rivalry is fierce. Friendly, but fierce. | |||||||
| Cheltenham. Well, near Cheltenham. | and makes the caravans. “But we’re | Giffords Circus arrived in the Hereford | ||||||||
| “If you find the Hungry Horse pub, | more like a quiet garden party.” | area last month to find a rival circus | ||||||||
| 35 | we’re behind the car park,” were Nell’s | 65 | It took the Giffords nine months to | had sneaked in the previous week and | ||||||
| directions. But what the 20-strong | build up the circus from scratch. They | that the town had had its fill of juggling | ||||||||
| troupe lacks in size it makes up for in | spotted a tent in the “opportunities in | 115 | and clowning. | |||||||
| proficiency and background of the | business” column of a newspaper and | “At the moment we are lucky to sell | ||||||||
| artists. | gradually collected and renovated the | 100 tickets a week,” says Nell. “But I | ||||||||
| 40 | Gerald Balding (general manager, | 70 | gaudily painted gypsy caravans, after | hope that will improve.” | ||||||
| puppeteer and Nell’s brother-in-law) | finding the first one in a ditch. | There were only 60 people in the | ||||||||
| comes from a family of racehorse | “We could have had normal | 120 | audience this time. So the Giffords will | |||||||
| trainers. The juggler is the gifted | caravans, but when you’re a travelling | just have to keep their optimism, think | ||||||||
| Dorian Claridge and operating the | circus you have to look the part,” says | big and who knows: today Stow, | ||||||||
| 45 | curtain is Iris Palmer, a former | 75 | Nell. The couple now live all year in | tomorrow the world! | ||||||
| supermodel. At 18, Iris was signed up | their caravan. “I miss our really | |||||||||
| by Chanel and became famous for | beautiful cottage in the Cotswolds | The Sunday Times | ||||||||
| pulling faces on the catwalk. But she | sometimes,” says Nell. “But this life is | |||||||||