Clowns are people, too – and sometimes, eggs! This mesmerising book catalogs more than 150 clowns, both their individual looks and personal stories, in a unique and strangely moving art book and tribute to one of pop culture's most misunderstood characters.

Step right up for the Greatest Book on Earth! For more than 70 years, Clowns International-the oldest established clowning organisation – has been painting the faces of its members on eggs. Each one is a record of a clown's unique identity, preserving the unwritten rule that no clown should copy another's look. This mesmerising volume collects more than 150 of these portraits, from 1946 to the modern day, accompanied by short personal histories of many of the clowns. Here are Tricky Nicky, Taffy, Bobo, Sammy Sunshine, the legendary Emmett Kelly, and Jolly Jack, clowning since 1977 and still performing today with a penguin puppet named Biscuit. A treasure just like the eggs it enshrines, The Clown Egg Register is an extraordinary archive of images and lives of the men and women behind the make-up.