I’m a bit late with this one, having taken a weeks’ annual leave I’ve rather lost track of what day it is!

If You Like Blyton: The Mystery of Tully Hall by Zöe Billings

and

Cunningham and Petrov: The Mystery of the Missing Children chapter 15

The circus was going to Little Carlington. As it came by all the village children ran beside it, cheering and shouting in excitement.

“Look at the great big elephant pulling that caravan! See him waving his trunk about!”

“I say, is that a chimpanzee? Why, he’s all dressed up! He’s wearing a jersey and trousers and a straw hat!”

Although it is Mr Galliano’s Circus that is going to Little Carlington this is not the beginning of any of the three books in the series. It is the beginning of A Circus Adventure, a short story first published in 1952, in Sunny Stories numbers 529-532. It was later included in Enid Blyton’s Omnibus which is where I am quoting from.