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The Bertram Mills Circus, which is to England as Barnum & Bailey's to this country, is noted for its trained animals; in this book their lion trainer tells how he does it, through kindness, not cruelty, with the realization that animals differ as much as humans in their personal likes and dislikes, friendships and feuds, and must be treated as individuals. Studying his animals until he knows them as well as he does himself, always seeing to it that he is boss (in each group of lions or tigers there is a boss- animal in control, and the trainer must control the boss), the author never quite trusts even his closest animal friends nor takes their reactions for granted, and he always is sure of his own reflexes and is prepared for trouble. There are no wild tales in the book; instead, the author, who is devoted to the big cats and who has little sympathy for those who insist that circus animals are mistreated, tells of the daily life of his charges and of his relations to them. Excellently illustrated and highly readable, the book should appeal not only to those few who may dream of adopting lion-training as a career, but also to all animal and circus lovers, to young people, and to adults who enjoy reading of a life remote from the confines of a chair.