This multi volume collection of stories takes place in the fictional shtetl of Patchentuch, located somewhere in the backwater of Eastern Poland in the late nineteenth century. The stories tell of the lighthearted adventures and misadventures of the town’s residents, and they transcend the grim reality of shtetl life to a more light hearted place. My hope is that the tales will provide the same pleasure for the reader that I derived from creating them.

This multi volume collection of stories takes place in the fictional shtetl of Patchentuch, located somewhere in the backwater of Eastern Poland in the late nineteenth century. The stories tell of the lighthearted adventures and misadventures of the town’s residents, and they transcend the grim reality of shtetl life to a more light hearted place. My hope is that the tales will provide the same pleasure for the reader that I derived from creating them.

This collection of stories takes place in the fictional shtetl of Patchentuch, located somewhere in the backwater of Eastern Poland in the late nineteenth century. The stories tell of the lighthearted adventures and misadventures of the town’s residents, and they transcend the grim reality of shtetl life to a more light hearted place. My hope is that the tales will provide the same pleasure for the reader that I derived from creating them.

This collection of stories takes place in the fictional shtetl of Patchentuch, located somewhere in the backwater of Eastern Poland in the late nineteenth century. The stories tell of the lighthearted adventures and misadventures of the town’s residents, and they transcend the grim reality of shtetl life to a more light hearted place. My hope is that the tales will provide the same pleasure for the reader that I derived from creating them.

Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith (1902-1945) was an English author, journalist and film critic. Many of her books, including her extensive oeuvre of ghost stories, involve a circus or gypsy setting, based on her own research and her (unsubstantiated) belief that she had a Romany great grandmother.Satan's Circus is a creepy tale of a circus run by a sinister and manipulative couple, Carl and Lya Brandt. When a new circus hand, Anatole, joins the troupe in North Africa, he is assigned to ...

This collection of stories takes place in the fictional shtetl of Patchentuch, located somewhere in the backwater of Eastern Poland in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The stories, which transcend the grim reality of shtetl life to another geography, tell of the lighthearted adventures and misadventures of the town’s residents. My hope is that these tales will provide the same pleasure for the reader that I derived from creating them.

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes. Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and ...

Satan's Circus is a macabre centerpiece that plunges a young man into the world of the Circus Brandt, a traveling troupe with a terrifying reputation. It's a tale of dark bargains and the ultimate price of loyalty, whispered to be a circus run by vampires or other unholy figures.Drawing heavily on her own experience as a circus publicist and her fascination with Romany culture and the theatrical world, Smith infuses this short story with a unique blend of ...

Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside in England on the 7th August 1902 into a privileged family steeped in titles and politics.Part of her education was at Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate. Here she met and befriended several other young women that the British tabloid press would later call the ‘Bright Young Things’, a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London.Smith's paternal great-grandmother, was said to have been a...

Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside in England on the 7th August 1902 into a privileged family steeped in titles and politics.Part of her education was at Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate. Here she met and befriended several other young women that the British tabloid press would later call the ‘Bright Young Things’, a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London.Smith's paternal great-grandmother, was said to have been a...

Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside in England on the 7th August 1902 into a privileged family steeped in titles and politics.Part of her education was at Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate. Here she met and befriended several other young women that the British tabloid press would later call the ‘Bright Young Things’, a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London.Smith's paternal great-grandmother, was said to have been a...

Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside in England on the 7th August 1902 into a privileged family steeped in titles and politics.Part of her education was at Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate. Here she met and befriended several other young women that the British tabloid press would later call the ‘Bright Young Things’, a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London.Smith's paternal great-grandmother, was said to have been a...