30 June 2020

One of the great tragedies of the Ring

"Introducing 'Miss Zelfredo, the world-famous snake-charmer', the ring-master said: 'It is with great regret that I have to announce one of the great tragedies of the Ring. Doreen Zelfredo's python, which had been with her for six years, died on Friday at Knowle. I am sure the audience will join with me in sympathy for Doreen, and in the wish that she may soon find a new pal. If ever a woman loved a snake Doreen did. Miss Zelfredo will now enter the ring and perform her act without her snake'"

- James Agate, diary entry, 30 July 1942, quoted in Roger Hudson (ed.), The Folio Book of Days, London, 2002, p.186

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