Belle Nash and the Bath circus

At the end of his last adventure (Belle Nash and the Bath Souffle), Belle Nash was banished for four years to the island of Grenada.

It is now 1835, and Belle has returned to Bath, glad to be back but pained by the absence of his most recent Caribbean love.

His heartache leads to confusions when he meets Pablo Fanque, the Black equestrian acrobat from Norfolk who longs to set up his own circus.

As a well-loved figure in Bath, Belle uses his influence to try and help, but has to run the gauntlet of Lord Servitude, the most hated man in England and a die-hard supporter of slavery.

As ever, William Keeling's whimsical tale brings Belle, his gay hero, into a situation where comedy does not obscure stark moral issues to do with prejudice and bigotry that are as alive today as they were in Regency times.