The Painted Tent

Name: The Painted Tent
Rating: 4.25 (112 reviews)

by Victor Canning Book 3 in the The Smiler Trilogy series.

First published 1974

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4.2(112)

Smiler reaches North Devon and is given shelter by the Duchess, a former fairground fortune-teller who now keeps a farm where circus animals spend the winter. Caring for the animals gives him work, companionship and the possibility of an education, but his false conviction still prevents him from living openly. A retired schoolmaster begins to teach him, strengthening Smiler’s hope that he might eventually work with animals professionally.

The escape of a peregrine falcon draws him into another difficult search just as news about his absent father becomes increasingly uncertain. The final volume brings together the trilogy’s concerns with freedom, responsibility and trust. Its farms, travelling-show connections and informal networks provide a distinctive picture of rural and fairground Britain in the 1970s while Smiler’s long effort to clear his name reaches its resolution.