In 1979 my mum got her dream job performing in the Tower Circus.. despite being a fire eater she had never worked in Circus and had been seeing shows at the Tower since she was a little girl. I spent my entire summer with her backstage and soon landed a job making the Custard Pies for Charlie ! ( my dream job ) As you know he was only there a few short weeks at the start of the season until his stroke when Charlie Jnr took over.. I would sit with Snr and watch him make his nose out of nose putty ( ill never forget the smell ) and watch him put it on every day then go prep his props and make the ‘ slosh ‘ .. I then took over the same duties but with Jnr ( I was 13 at the Time.. Jnr cant have been much older than 23 ? ) so being closer in age we got on great and I hung with Jnr and Jimmy Buchannan a lot. It was a great summer for any 13 year old boy.. I landed more backstage jobs and me and my mum even hand reared one of Mary Chipperfields tiger cubs that was born in the ring that year ( called Shena ) A year or less later when Charlie died I was sat right next to Mrs Cairoli inside the small chapel for the funeral.. I will never forget as long as I live looking around behind me as we where on the front row and seeing there where no other kids in the church.. just me.. a huge privilege considering Charlie was a kids entertainer foremost.

My own story continued and I became one of the most famous Set Designers in the World designing West end Musicals , Blackpool Summer shows, Cruise ship shows, every major TV show in the 90’s and then moving to America where I now live designing Broadway Musicals and Vegas spectaculars and big Network TV shows like American Idol.

I always tell people to this day that my very first job in show-business was working as Charlie Cairoli's assistant making the pies, filling the buckets and prepping the props

Such a shame I couldn't have snook into your book.. I do feel even though it was brief that I am a part of Charlies history and he helped set me up for a fantastic life in show-business.

Andy Walmsley