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 Caribbean, where his aunt had gifted him a legacy of land. It is now 1835, and Belle now returns to Bath, glad to be back but pained by the absence of his most recent love, one of the slaves he freed from his inheritance. His heart-ache leads to confusions when he meets Pablo Fanque, the black bare-back rider from Norfolk who longs to set up his own circus in England. As a well-loved figure in Bath, Belle uses his influence to try and help Pablo but has to run the gauntlet of Lord Servitude, the most hated man in England and a die-hard advocate of slavery. As ever, William Keeling's comic tale brings Belle, his gay hero, into a situation that is both a comedy and a morality tale about bigotry and prejudices that are as alive today as they were in Regency times.