FORTY years after his dad ran away to become a circus lion tamer, Swindon schoolboy Andrew Austen has been learning a few big top skills for himself.

The Moscow State Circus rolled into town this week, and seven-year-old Andrew was one of 30 children from Meadow Park School invited to meet and learn from the performers.

But unbeknown to some of his school pals, Andrew had a head start not only was his brother born in the circus, his mum and his new sister-in-law were trapeze artists.

What's more, his dad ran away to the circus at 15 and went on to become one of the UK's top performers so you could say Andrew has the circus in his blood.

Andrew's dad Brian Austen left his home and his job as a groom to join the circus in 1962.

At the time his own father told him he'd be back within a week. But he couldn't have been more wrong.

For Brian went on to become a tightrope walker and top lion tamer. He also met and married a trapeze artist called Evelyn and eventually emerged as the head of a multi-million pound circus empire.

Now a successful businessman living in Oaksey, Brian, 55, may have swapped his lions for assorted planes, helicopters and cars, but he keeps a hand in the running of the Moscow State Circus, the Chinese State Circus and Cottle & Austen Circus.

And he was more than happy to arrange for youngest son Andrew and his pals to spend some time with the Moscow State Circus performers before they began their week-long run in Swindon.

Brian said: "The children are doing a project on the circus at school and we thought it would be a great idea to get them down here to learn a few skills themselves.

"Many of the performers are here to give them demonstrations and then help them try out some of the simpler moves the children are really excited."

Within minutes of the performers taking to the ring, the children were clapping and cheering and itching to get up there too and first up was Andrew himself, bravely balancing on the shoulders of the circus's amazing tightrope walker Goussein Khamdoulaev, as he walked across a 12ft wide wire.

The children then tried their hand at juggling and hula-hooping, and a stint on a unicycle, courtesy of clown Andrey Averiouchkine.

For Andrew, the morning spent juggling, tightrope walking and generally clowning around made him even more determined to follow in his dad's footsteps.

He said: "My bedroom is decorated like a big top. I have elephants on my wardrobe and trapeze artists on the ceiling with cages with animals in. My dad was a lion tamer but I want to be a juggler when I grow up."

Andrew's mum Evelyn, 42, agreed: "Andrew is absolutely obsessed with the circus but that's because it's in our family's blood.

"I met Brian while performing and our oldest son Michael was actually born into it and now has a baby with a Hungarian trapeze artist called Nina.

"It would be wonderful if Andrew were to go into the circus eventually, but it's up to him to decide whether he loves it enough."

Even if Andrew does decide to opt for a slightly more conventional career, there is another possible performer in the Austen dynasty.

The newest addition to the family is baby Michael, who was born to Brian and Evelyn's oldest son Michael, 22, and Nina, 24, just three weeks ago.

Posing alongside baby Michael and the rest of the family outside the Moscow State big top, Evelyn said: "Who knows, maybe my grandson will be on the bill at the Moscow State Circus in 20 years' time!"