Circus staff photograph
Podcast, 35 mins

Interview with Mark Twitchett

As part of the National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA) at 30 Podcast series circus enthusiast and historian Mark Twitchett talks about circus and the NFCA.

Mark Twitchett is the President of the Circus Friends Association of Great Britain (CFA). Mark has been a member of the Circus Association of GB since 1963. 

His passion for circus started at the age of 7 when he saw Sir Robert Fossett’s Circus for the first time, this was his first circus experience, which was followed by many visits to circuses across the country including the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, Bertram Mills’, Billy Smart’s and Chipperfield’s, Sir Robert Fossett’s, Robert Brothers’, Hoffman’s, Gerry Cottle, Austen Brothers, Tony Hopkins, James Clubb and Gandey’s among others. Mark has written for the CFA magazine ‘King Pole’ on many occasions contributed articles, reviews, obituaries and news. He is especially interested in the history of the circus and has endeavoured to record the history of the smaller, family circuses which have been overlooked by the major authors and is the co-author of Sir Robert Fossett’s Circus: The Definitive Visual History. 

Credits and Additional Information

Interviewer

  • Andrew Moore, Digital and Exhibitions Officer at the National Fairground and Circus Archive.

Editing/Post Production/Mastering

You can discover some of the collections that were discussed by searching on our Discover our Archives and NFCA Digital databases.

You can view more images from our circus related collections here.

More information on how to access the National Fairground and Circus Archive collections can be found on our website. 

Part of the National Fairground and Circus Archive at Podcast 30 series

See also