Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
Big Top Burning : The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and The Greatest Show On Earth, Paperback / softback Book

Big Top Burning : The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and The Greatest Show On Earth Paperback / softback

Paperback / softback

Out of Stock - We are unable to provide an estimated availability date for this product

Description

The fire broke out at 2:40 p.m. Thousands of men, women, and children were crowded under Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s big top watching the Flying Wallendas begin their death-defying high-wire act.

Suddenly someone screamed “Fire!” and the panic began.

By 2:50 the tent had burned to the ground. Not everyone had made it out alive.   With primary source documents and survivor interviews, Big Top Burning recounts the true story of the 1944 Hartford circus fire—one of the worst fire disasters in US history.

Its remarkable characters include: Robert Segee, the fifteen-year-old circus roustabout and known pyromaniac; and the Cook children, Donald, Eleanor, and Edward, who were in the audience when the circus tent caught fire.

Guiding readers through the investigations of the mysteries that make this moment in history so fascinating, this book asks: Was the unidentified body of a little girl nicknamed “Little Miss 1565” Eleanor Cook?

Was the fire itself an act of arson—and did Robert Segee set it?

Big Top Burning combines a gripping disaster story, an ongoing detective and forensics saga, and World War II–era American history, inviting middle-grade readers to take part in a critical evaluation of the evidence and draw their own conclusions.

Information

Save 15%

£11.95

£10.15

Out of Stock - We are unable to provide an estimated availability date for this product
Add to Basket
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information