Dimensions
155 x 234 x 32mm
'You can't mix tigers and husbands. And anyhow, I prefer the tigers.'
This delightfully eccentric novel tells the true story of Mabel Stark - the Mae West of tiger taming - who survived a dozen tiger attacks and five husbands.
Mabel Stark was the greatest female tiger trainer in history. In the 1910s and 20s, when circus was the most popular entertainment in America, she was the biggest attraction for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Mabel was five-feet tall, brazen, suicidally courageous, obsessed with tigers and sexually eccentric. In 'The Final Confession Of Mabel Stark, Robert Hough has used the documents of her life to explore the mysteries of her heart.
This vibrant and moving fictional autobiography starts in 1968. Mabel is just turning eighty and is about to lose her job. Faced with the loss of her cats, she looks back on her life, her escapades and her tragedies, her love affairs with tigers and men.
She also confronts her darkest secret, her guilt at committing "the worst thing one person can do to another". Now, with the end of her life in sight, there is one thing above all else she needs to do. Mabel Stark wants to confess.
Exuberant and inventive, 'The Final Confession Of Mabel Stark' transports its readers to an age before cinema and television when circus perfumers were superstars.
Finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2002.
