As a child, going to the circus was a proper treat. I got to wear my best polo neck and flares – it was the 70s –and was allowed to eat candy floss and popcorn till I felt sick.
Nowadays, our tastes are different: there are fewer circuses – and hopefully fewer flares. Interesting then to find it is still a popular setting in fiction. I chose it for my novel The Girl Who Walked On Air because it plucked my main character from a normal C19th childhood and put her slapbang into an unconventional world. It meant she could move about, take risks, be independent. And of course, it put her in mortal danger.
Here are ten great books where writers use the circus for their own story needs:
1. Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson
When Hetty spots an elephant's head over the top of the hedge, it heralds the arrival of Tanglefield's Travelling Circus. Of particular interest to Hetty is Madame Adeline who has "red hair just like mine." So begins her quest to be reunited with her real mother. It's a funny, exciting, heart-breaking story, where the circus represents Hetty's hopes and dreams.
2. Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier
Set in 1792, Chevalier's story follows Dorset carpenter Thomas Kellaway and his family to London, where he's employed to build props for Astley's Circus. The nightly shows in Astley's giant red "ampitheatre" are spellbinding. Yet behind the scenes we see a very different world that echoes the unrest in society at large.
3. Wild Boy by Rob Lloyd Jones
Covered in hair from head to toe, Wild Boy is a "savage spectacle," performing every miserable night in a freak show. One evening, he witnesses a murder and gets framed for it. Assisted by acrobat Clarissa, he sets out to clear his name. This is a delicious romp of a story where circus life is described in all its seedy, Victorian glory.
4. Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
In the chapter titled "Troy Touches His Wife's Hand", Sergeant Troy has already been missing for six years. The circus is his hiding place. In heavy disguise he performs as Turpin riding Black Bess, and when one night he spies Bathsheba in the crowd, it mirrors perfectly their courtship years before.
5. For Love Of A Horse by Patricia Leitch
In Leitch's novel the circus is a place of cruelty and repression- the populist view on the use of animals in circuses. The horses are whipped, the dogs "poor" and even the human performers are "tired" and "shrill". From it, Jinny rescues Yasmin The Killer Horse who over time becomes her beloved Shantih. This is the first book in a series I adored as a child.
6. Josser by Nell Stroud
A modern day true story of what happened when Stroud ran away with the circus. Her tales of hardship and bullying make for uncomfortable reading. Yet it's her respect for circus life and her passion for horses that really shines through. This is a celebration of a culture in decline.
7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
A beautiful, fantastical tale of the circus that "Opens at nightfall, closes at dawn." It is part- adventure, part- historical, part-love story; the sort of book that defies genre. Details are breathtaking; the circus is a magical, mysterious place where anything is possible.
8. Pantomime by Laura Lam
This brilliant YA story gives "running away to the circus" a new twist. RH Ragona's Circus of Magic is the perfect hiding place for runaway Micah Grey. It's full of outcasts, freaks, secrets. Yet the circus has its own strict codes of behaviour: Lam creates a tough, unforgiving world.
9. Mortlock by Jon Mayhew
Mayhew's glorious debut starts with a knife- throwing scene. From then on the action never stops. To Josie who has grown up performing, the circus means security: it's home. Yet when she's desperate for help, the circus she falls in with soon reveals itself to be a sinister "circus of the dead."
10. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Mr Gradgrind is only interested in facts. So when Sissy from Sleary's Circus joins his children's class, she's promptly asked to leave again. Her circus background makes her more "fancy" than "fact". Yet Louisa and Tom Gradgrind's joyless education doesn't serve them well. By the end of this cautionary tale, it's circus girl Sissy who is the moral victor.
• Emma Carroll's new book The Girl Who Walked On Air is available at the Guardian bookshop.
