I loved this book as a child and when I recently came accross this copy decided to give it a reread. About nine years later in another Enid Blyton book namely The Valley of Adventure, the three main villains are Juan, Pepi and Luis! I also got tired of Jimmy's family's superiority toward the other circus people as "untidy and dirty".

When the odd-job man disappears, Jimmy's father is offered a week's work, and then invited with his family to join the circus full-time. The story revolves around Jimmy, his parents, his dog Lucky and the others like Lotta, who work in the circus. He has a few riding lessons from Lotta and because he looks so funny when he falls off he inspires a routine for Sticky Stanley the clown. The strong stories of friendship, hard work, adventures and importance of family shine throughout and will mean I will always want to go back to see what is happening with Jimmy and Lotta and pretend I am that kid again being read a fantastic story by my wonderful mum. In the weekend, Jimmy visits the circus camp for a whole day at the invitation of his young friend, Lotta.

Jimmy - who, I suppose, is about ten - loves animals, and spends most of his after-school hours hanging out in a circus ground, helping where he can. Galliano's Circus (Galliano's Circus 1) (September 1938) 3/6 (8½ X 6½) (218 pages) Red cloth boards and title on spine in black with a dustwrapper (ill. He comes across the lit-up cottage of a gamekeeper where he stays the night and then sets off in the morning to continue his hunt .

The boy's affinity with animals even leads him to train a dog of his own, Lucky the fox-terrier, who is a marvel in the ring. It turns out that he is because the word's got round that the little boy is great with animals and very helpful. Born in London in 1897, Enid lived much of her life in Buckinghamshire and adored dogs, gardening and the countryside. Blue cloth covered boards clean, light wear to corners and spine ends, spine and head of rear board sunned, foxing to endpapers, ink inscription to fep, colour frontispiece entitled, 'Do your best, Lucky,' said Jimmy, 'Do your best! Boards rubbed and marked, spine sunned with a closed tear to rear edge, pages foxed, coloured pencil colouring to illustration o page 73, otherwise, clean throughout.Her books have sold over 500 million copies and have been translated into other languages more often than any other children's author.