The Ringmaster's Apprentice

Fancy scrubbing a bridge with your toothbrush? Perhaps you'd like to count the maggots in the bin? What about spending the rest of your childhood catching enormous spiders with your bare hands?

This is where Arthur starts.

England, 1949. Nobody wants to live at the East Berkshire and District Home for Parentless Boys, least of all twelve-year-old Arthur. The war took his parents. It hasn't taken his hope.

Then a travelling circus rolls into the village: a charismatic ringmaster, majestic lions, gallons of elephant snot, and a chance of a new family.

His luck might be changing.

But two men are recovering from war in very different ways, and their private battles are about to become Arthur's problem. The circus can be a dangerous place when old wounds refuse to heal. And old wounds can turn men into tyrants.

Arthur could be forgiven for following the same path.

Instead, when the orphanage's money starts disappearing, and the circus is put up for sale, only he can fight for it. Part apprentice, part spy and part detective, he must learn the skills necessary to save the circus, and his friends.

The Ringmaster's Apprentice is a warm, funny and moving adventure for readers aged 9 to 12, and anyone who loves a good old-fashioned story.

Alongside found family and the need for honesty and hard work, it explores questions rarely asked of children this directly: what do good role models look like, and what happens to men when the war is over?