An exhilarating new collection celebrating the unconventional,
inspiring and dangerous lives of female circus performers.
​Available here or
  www.greyhenpress.com/hen-run/
 or Rhyme and Reason, Sheffield's fabulous independent bookshop: rhymereasonindie@gmail.com  tel :0114 2661950

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'Who else could breathe life so originally and respectfully into these extraordinary stories  of women who refused to be tamed? With the effortless ease of a trapeze artist each poem somersaults through history unravelling her performer's incredible achievements. 'Upstart Jugglers' transports us  to the Big Top and installs us in a ringside seat. We hear the 'elephants' brassy welcome',  inhale the 'hot sharp fizz of ammonia' and gasp in amazement as Mabel escapes a mauling and Ursula stands dwarfed between the  paws of a polar bear.
'Upstart Jugglers' speaks loudly  to those  of us who've found that 'domesticity will dull the sharpest knife' with its message to be brave and seek out and celebrate our own gifts and talents.'      Joy Keywood

'A chapbook about women: the paradox and magic of Chloe Balcomb’s Upstart Jugglers. Strong women in every sense, her circus artists are, ‘Tired of waiting and impatient for the spotlight’.  Chloe’s wonderful poetry conjures exquisite images – who can forget Koringa’s snake-tattooed thigh or Miss Lala, strap between her teeth, in the ‘leather’s sour kiss’? She weaves ingenious internal rhymes and laugh-out-loud crazy, quick-fire couplets that combine elsewhere with lyrical unfoldings, slow then sudden over line and stanza breaks - prima performance! ' 
​Nicky Hallet

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'Behind a tasselled velvet curtain of deepest crimson
and forest green, a throng of fantastical circus women
are tired of waiting and impatient for the spotlight...
Extract from 'Razzle Dazzle'
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Step inside to meet:
Polar Bear Princess, Ursus 
Tattooed aerialist, Maud 
Human Arrow, Pansy
Female Fakir, Koringa
Strong Woman and Aerialist Miss La La
and other fabulous female performers.