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.