John Cann

In "Snakes Alive" John Cann tells the colourful and often tragic story of the men and women - frequently self styled 'Professors' and 'Cleopatras' who brought large crowds to fairground circuits to watch their dangerous game. The book is illustrated with a fascinating and unique collection of well over a hundred photographs.John Cann's Snakes Alive will bring you back to the turn of the century to a time when snake oil and snake showman were part of the landscape in Australia. John tells us first hand of this time. John, for the last 30 plus years, has run the snake show in La Perouse as did his father George for 35 years before him. An excellent read. Brought back a lot of memories of my childhood hanging out at Lapa watching George and and his son John with the snakes. Was always my ambition to get picked from the crowd to be a volunteer helper. My grandmother would never let me, even though she knew George quite well she didn't trust the brown snakes.… (meer)