Cof fee table

Marvellous Miss May: Queen of the Circus

by Stephanie Owen Reeder, NLA

Barely five foot tall in her stockinged feet, Miss May, from Bundaberg, Queensland, was an equestrienne extraordinaire, who, aged seven, was given up for adoption by her impoverished mother to the owners of Wirth Brothers Circus. It was 1901 and a time when a circus was a cheaper option than an orphanage for desperate parents. Universally renowned for her incredible contortions – she could tuck her feet backwards under her chin - she was the only female who could somersault from one galloping horse to another, landing on both feet on the other creature’s bare back. Audiences were aghast when after one finale, an overzealous attendant rushed in with the rigging for the next act. May’s foot slipped and caught in a stirrup dangling from horse Kitty’s back. Alarmed, the horse bolted and May, hung upside down at its side, had her head thudded against the ring’s edge and the tent’s pole, knocking her out. But the proud survivor got back on the horse and performed in front of King George and Queen Mary in London in 1913, later conquering adoring audiences in America, where she married and settled. She died in Florida in 1978, aged 84. Stunning full-colour illustrations and vintage circus ads make for a marvellous book.