Satan's Circus

Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside in England on the 7th August 1902 into a privileged family steeped in titles and politics. Part of her education was at Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate. Here she met and befriended several other young women that the British tabloid press would later call the ‘Bright Young Things’, a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. Smith's paternal great-grandmother, was said to have been a Gypsy, and this sparked an early and life-long interest with the Romani people, she even went so far as to learn to read and speak the language, which she called ‘musical and broken.’ Her life was full of adventure and mishaps. A mistaken encounter with a man she thought could help her into the film business turned out to threats of marriage and death from a man wanted for the murder of his father. She was even arrested twice. Once for listing her career as a journalist and another, in Rome, for walking around in a sleeveless dress. Smith began her career writing society gossip columns for various newspapers but later received an offer to write for the newly-formed Great Carmo Circus, with which she travelled for several years and was the source material for many of her books. Her first novel, ‘Red Wagon’, was published when she was 28 and it was an immediate bestseller. A prolific writer several of her works were also adapted for films. Smith also wrote ghost stories and others flavoured with evil. Her support for the Conservative party may be forgiven but her attributed quote to be a ‘warm adherent of General Franco’ less so. Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith died on the 20th October 1945 in Westminster after a long illness. She was 43.