25 JULY 1925, Page 38

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Mr. James Lloyd, who writes hiS autobiography in My Circus Life (Noel Douglas), has been one of the greatest of itinerants. He was circus proprietor when the circus was still an integral part of common life ; and his narrative gives a vivid picture of the trials and adventures, the conflicts with the police, the battles with rowdies, the tricks, subter- fuges and quick-wittedness of his company of the road. Mr. Chesterton aptly compares his book to the stories Of Dickens ; the humour and grotesqueness are the same in both. Perhaps in the end we shall have to acquit Dickens of caricature.