Nell Gifford

Nell Gifford born Eleanor Rose Stroud (24 January 1973 – 8 December 2019) was a writer and the founding director of Giffords Circus.

Life
Gifford was born in Oxford in 1973 at the John Radcliffe Hospital. Her parents were Charlotte (born Pumphrey) and Richard Peter (Rick) Stroud. Her father was a television director and producer and he was the second husband of her mother who had been Charlotte Bridgewater. Nell had three half-siblings including the designer Emma Bridgewater. Her mother was a key figure and she encouraged her children to have a long childhood.

She fell in love with horses and she was educated at a convent school, before she went on to New College, Oxford. Her university place was put on hold for a year after her mother was in a riding accident that sent her into a coma and although she came round she never recovered. Nell spent a gap year at the Circus Flora based in St. Louis Missouri which had been founded in the mid-1980s. She completed her degree in English and went to work in circuses. She had a hard time at one circus but she persevered and she became a ringmaster at the French Santus Circus. There she renewed her love of horses and hoped one day to train them to do dressage. Gifford write her story of being someone who works in a circus but was not born into a circus family. These people are named Jossers and her book was Josser: The Secret Life of a Circus Girl.

In 2000 she was married to a farmer's son named Toti Gifford and they founded Giffords Circus which was based at a farm. The marriage ended after they had twins.

In 2003 she published her second book. This was a children's book about one of the founders of the original circus, Philip Astley. Her book was titled Sgt. Major Philip Astley: Inventor of the Circus.

She was involved with reshaping her circus to meet modern tastes. She was awarded a £10,000 grant by the Jerwood Foundation and that enable more people to be involved with producing a show. Three important women were involved; they were the horsewoman Rebecca Townsend and her pony, the trapeze artist Emily Park on the trapeze and Isabelle Woywode. In the following year, 2004, Giffords Circus had their first themed show titled "Pearl". Barry Grantham was involved with the choreography.

She knew five years before she died that she had breast cancer and in time she was given a year to live, after it was discovered that it had spread. She described cancer as "boring" and she lived her last months between hospital appointments and continuing to appear in her circus albeit with her cropped hair covered by a large blond wig. One of her last enthusiasms was painting which she discovered while recreating a Picasso on the side of a circus van. In a year she created 60 paintings which were later auctioned.

Gifford died in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital of cancer and her niece took over the circus. Her younger sister the writer Clover Stroud later wrote a book that described their life together titled The Red of My Blood.