Despite all the great showmen of that golden age whom he met, George Sanger Coleman's story is dominated from the first page to the last by the character of his grandfather, the little roadside conjuror and exhibitor of a Performing Oyster, who became the greatest of them all.
Few names have lived longer in the public memory than that of Sanger. Even now, more than forty years since the startling news of a brutal murder at East Finchley was splashed across every newspaper, the name of Lord George Sanger stirs a response. Four days after his supposed murderer had committed suicide, the joint inquest was held. With that and the funeral, for which thousands of people lined the route to Margate cemetery and the cabbies tied black and crepe to their whips, the extraordinary story of "the most famous showman of his day or perhaps of any day" came to an end.