charles barrow's writing

Further to my Joyland post below; the ultimate big wheel - or The London Eye to give it its official name - to be found on the South Bank of the Thames in London (I've posted a photo of it previously). This boy is huge. I took a ride in one of those glass pods years ago and the view of the City from the top of the wheel is incredible. It revolves very slowly and doesn't stop, so you enter and leave your pod while the wheel is still turning. It's the ultimate funfair ride, albeit at a walking pace, I don't do thrills and spills. I don't recall the Eye being used as a location in either films or books, though I'm sure it must have been. One of those glass pods would make a great place for a lovers' tryst (think Sleepless in Seattle atop the Empire State Building), or an exchange of information in a tale of espionage (imagine James Bond trapped in one of those pods with a ninja assassin). Hitchcock would have put it to good use without a doubt. ...

I'm currently reading Joyland by Stephen King and enjoying it very much. I read many of his early novels when I was younger, the horror novels (The Shining, Carrie, Salem's Lot) and they scared the pants off me and I had to give up on him. But I've came back to him lately when I picked up 11.22.63 and raced through it. It involves a time-travel conundrum and the assassination of President John Kennedy (the title refers to the date he was killed). Anyway, that wasn't a horror story, it was a tense thriller and I admired it a lot. I'd forgotten what a good writer King is and it was nice to be reminded. Similarly, Joyland isn't a horror story, though it has some creepy moments, and I'm enjoying it and the writing.  I suppose the world of the carny and the funfair, as we in the UK would call it, has been in my subconscious then, and as I've travelled around this winter I've spotted a couple of merry-go-rounds at Christmas Fairs and taken snaps of th...

MacGuffin - 'An object or event in a film or book which initially appears to be of great significance but which actually serves merely to advance the plot.' Oxford English Dictionary. The MacGuffin wasn't invented by Alfred Hitchcock but it is very closely associated with him and his films.