Katie Hickman went to Mexico looking for magic. She found it in the circus - Big Top, clowns, elephants and all - where cheap, torn materials and tarnished sequins are transformed into nights of glittering illusion. Gradually adjusting to the harsh ways of the circus's nomadic lifestyle, she soon became absorbed into this hypnotic new world, at first as a foreigner but later as 'La Gringa Estrella', a performer in her own right.
'A wonderful writer . An adventure hard to beat in terms of sheer exotic allure Guardian A delight... The stories of the cirqueros themselves read like tales by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ... Katie seems as deliberate and calculating as Paul Theroux poring over his railway timetables ... a very good travel book indeed' - Harpers & Queen
'Mexico will not have been portrayed more vividly since Graham Greene's the Lawless Roads... Enchanting' - Daily Telegraph
Author
About Katie Hickman
Katie Hickman is the author of five previous books, including two best-selling history books, Courtesans and Daughters of Britannia. She has written two travel books: Travels with a Circus, which was shortlisted for the 1993 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and Dreams of the Peaceful Dragon. She is the author of one previous novel, The Quetzal Summer, for which she was listed for the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year award. The Aviary Gate published by Bloomsbury in April 2008 and in paperback in February 2009, is a stunning tale of intrigue in the Sultan's harem.
Katie Hickman lives in London with her two children and her husband, the philosopher A.C.Grayling.
