Peak behind the circus tent in this month's best historical fiction; THE SHOW WOMAN by Emma Cowing, THE ELOPEMENT by Gill Hornby, CLEOPATRA by Natasha Solomons

SEQUINS and spite collide in this gorgeous novel set in the first all-women circus along the highways and byways of Edwardian Scotland.

Inspired by Emma Cowing’s Great-Aunt Violet, who ran away to the circus when she was 15, the author tells a tale of dazzle and determination as her four unforgettable characters eek out a living and refine their skills – with Lena as ringmaster – to great acclaim.

Cowing is sure-footed on the tempestuous dynamics of their friendships and the dark secrets that drive their ambition, while high stakes drama comes in the shape of a vengeful big top owner – the unscrupulous Serena Lidden – who’s determined to scupper their chances, and who’s seemingly involved in the mystery surrounding Lena’s mother’s disappearance.

THE Elopement is Hornby’s third foray into Jane Austen territory. As with Miss Austen and Godmersham Park , Hornby combines meticulous period research with a fine feeling for the characters’ inner lives, hopes and fears.

Here she draws on Jane Austen’s niece Fanny Knight’s decades-spanning diaries to recreate the scandal that gives the novel its title. At the heart of the story is the lovely, warm-hearted affection between Fanny’s breezily confident brother Ned, and her stepdaughter, the beautiful Mary Dorothea Knatchbull.

Disapproval is doled out by Mary’s father, a prideful household tyrant, and from self-deceiving Fanny, who imagines herself a paragon of motherly care, while displaying a dismaying lack of interest in her charges. There’s froth and frivolity in this Regency romance, but a dark seam of reality runs through it too as Mary battles for love in a patriarchal world.

SOLOMONS’ Cleopatra is the latest in a long line of novels reclaiming maligned or dismissed women from myth and history and offering a fresh take on an old tale.

Here the Egyptian queen takes centre-stage; she’s a richly drawn character, who’s a wily operator in her court’s deadly power struggle. There’s pomp and splendour in Solomons’ sensuous tale, which is lush with exquisite palaces, heady scents, gold and glory, but there’s also the harsh reality of death and bloody betrayal, which is mitigated by the sustaining balm of female friendship.

Cleopatra may set her sights on Julius Caesar, but her most heartfelt moments are with her servant/childhood friend Charmian, who is always loyal and loving.