'The Victorian Clown', a book published this month by Cambridge University Press tells the stories of Jem Frowde (1831-1899) a nephew of the Henglers who were running their circus in the Victorian period, and Tom Lawrence (c1820-1896) who clowned with a variety of circuses over the same period.  I have an interest in this book for a variety of reason.  It was my article 'Frowde the Proud - The Clown Evangelist' (Gloucestershire History, 1994, pp.9-14) which alerted David Stabb to the importance of James Frowde's autobiography which was lodged, at the time, under his bed!  After lending it to the Theatre Museum in London, it was possible for me to obtain a photocopy, transcribe the manuscript, with some difficulty due to Frowde's poor handwriting, and deposit a copy of this with the Theatre Museum.  I later wrote the article 'The Lost Autobiography of James Henry Frowde' (Gloucestershire History, 2001, pp.21-2 , which painted the background to Victorian circus, paraphrased Frowde's story and alerted historians to the existence of the manuscript.  My contacts with the late Paul Newman, by correspondence, later through his website and latterly by meetings in person, stimulated my interest in his ancestor Tom Lawrence the Circus equestrian, talking clown, comic actor and portable theatre proprietor.  Paul's copy of Tom Lawrence's 'gagbook' has also been used by the authors of the new book 'The Victorian Clown'.  Professor Jacky Bratton and her post-doctoral assistant Ann Featherstone have taken the two sources to expand and 'contextualize' the Frowde and Lawrence stories in the form of this book.  At the price of £48 this is not a book for the casual reader but is an extremely readable account of two lives, and two views from the inside of the Victorian circus scene.  It is nicely produced, illustrated with some of Frowde's own drawings and has plenty of footnotes and references explaining and giving sources supporting details of the stories, as befits the work of two academics.  Recommend it to your local library!   John Turner