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Wardley's autobiography published

One thing which struck me as particularly notable was John's admiration for Nick Varney, both with the projects they worked together on (eg Nemesis, the Haunted House), and in contrast to the previous Tussauds management. :)
 
Just finished the book an hour or two ago... As I said earlier in the thread, it really is a fascinating and lovely read. It's amazing how humble John is - he sees a lot of his later work as other people's projects that he 'just' designed the whole track for...

My only slight disappointment (and that's cos I'm just greedy) is that I felt like there could have been more on the theme park work at Chessie and Towers and Thorpe, though I guess those days have already been well documented!
 
I've not read it, but I'm actually quite happy there's apparently not much about Alton and Chessington. We're all fairly knowledgeable regarding the development of the parks already. I'm much more interested in his work in film and things like Barry Island.
 
Oh he definitely reads the forums. Very rare to see him actually comment though :)
I can imagine he'd never stop getting bombarded with random messages if he made it known that he actively used a forum.

As for the Q&A there have been a few over the years. You just have to be around when they happen.
 
No there hasn't been any on here, but remember that we're not even a year old yet! :)

As for John reading forums, he definitely does as he name dropped us and TT in his radio interview this week.
 
There's been none on here. However the team on here were responsible for this great Q&A with John Wardley on TowersTimes back in 2010: click me.

The problem with having a future Q&A with Wardley is that his career is so well documented at this point it's hard for there to be any new interesting questions asked. I would be interested in knowing about the later years of his career. Although with all the secrecy it's unlikely we'll hear any ins and outs of Merlin the past 5 years for a good long while.

But yeah, on the whole I don't really think there's much more that can be asked. A lot of his career can be found documented online and now in his autobiography.

I personally would rather see the team get a Q&A type thing with Candy Holland. I'd love to learn more about her career and learn more about her overall. She's someone we know has worked on previous Alton Towers projects. Another person I wouldn't mind hearing more about too is Chris C (not sure if I can go putting full names of staff on here), the head of entertainments at Alton Towers. He's been responsible for a lot of the changes in entertainments and events we've seen the past few years at Alton!

I think if the team were to ever look into a Q&A session, someone that we know little about would be more interesting.

Of course if they got John doing one again I wouldn't complain, it's always nice to hear about John's work and his views on the industry.
 
James said:
There's been none on here. However the team on here were responsible for this great Q&A with John Wardley on TowersTimes back in 2010: click me.

The problem with having a future Q&W with Wardley is that his career is so well documented at this point it's hard for there to be any new interesting questions asked. I would be interested in knowing about the later years of his career. Although with all the secrecy it's unlikely we'll hear any ins and outs of Merlin the past 5 years for a good long while.

But yeah, on the whole I don't really think there's much more that can be asked. A lot of his career can be found documented online and now in his autobiography.

I personally would rather see the team get a Q&A type thing with Candy Holland. I'd love to learn more about her career and learn more about her overall. She's someone we know has worked on previous Alton Towers projects. Another person I wouldn't mind hearing more about too is Chris C (not sure if I can go putting full names of staff on here), the head of entertainments at Alton Towers. He's been responsible for a lot of the changes in entertainments and events we've seen the past few years at Alton!

I think if the team were to ever look into a Q&A session, someone that we know little about would be more interesting.

Of course if they got John doing one again I wouldn't complain, it's always nice to hear about John's work and his views on the industry.
Click to expand...

James I think you are right, I would want to know about AT from when Merlin took over. The plans that got scrapped, John's ideas and what Merlin think about the parks future. I guess we will never find this out. You are right when you say that his past is well documented. I would love to know how he feels about AIR, compared to what he designed though

Candy Holland would be great, I would love to ask her if 13 is what she imagined or whether cuts happened to the project which lead to the final design
 
I just enjoy hearing John talk about his past experience.

You can tell he is someone who is passionate about what he does, and has a lot of time for the people who enjoy his work.

I think if there was a presentation put on by John and Candy, it would be very popular.

Ian
 
There's now 10% off Wardley's book on Amazon. As if it wasn't already awesome enough! :p
 
My copy arrived this morning. Was estimated to be delivered next Monday! So I'm beyond impressed with it arriving so quickly.

The cover is awfully pixelated. So much it hurts. The back looks nicely done and clear, a shame the same didn't happen to the front. Despite this, it's what you read inside the book that counts!

I'm looking forward starting to read it tonight!
 
Finished mine last night - very interesting, but also struck me just how lucky this guy was! I mean, people giving him business cards and saying "call me for a job" just at the right moments, but also, the amount of enthusiasm he has and the effort he put into everything.

I did feel like the book was a tad short, would have liked to have read more, particularly about Barry Island where as a kid, the Wacky GoldMine was one of my fave rides.

A few paragraphs about where he saw himself heading in the future after retirement would have also been interesting.

Overall though a good read, and i'm not really bothered about the picture on the front being pixellated!
 
Luck often determines careers. He might have fluked his roots but he has made his own success.


-Sent from a mobile phone-
 
my copy has arrived today. ;D but i have to wait till later to start reading it :(
 
A great book, but a truly great guy. I haven't finished it yet, but what I have read so far is great. Maybe they should make a movie about his life or even a musical??? :p
 
Finished reading my copy a few days ago.

A fantastic read and I can't thank Wardley enough for writing something so interesting. Barry Island was a highlight part for me, having visited Barry throughout my childhood and even these days (although I find it rather sad seeing the mess it's in now) it was very interesting to read about his time there.

It was interesting reading how his career with Tussauds developed. Even though the last few pages were very rushed (which is understandable, I highly doubt anything going on with Merlin can be mentioned for a long while) I'd say this goes to the top of my list of my favourite autobiographies.

I'll never quite look at the lift in Sweet Transvestite in The Rocky Horror Picture show the same again! I think I may just laugh every time I watch it now, knowing just how it was done. The magic of film!

A very insightful book and a pleasure to read. So if you're reading this John, thank you, I enjoyed every page!
 
I popped into Barry Island 2 weeks ago and had a walk around the "pleasure park" in the pouring rain.... oh dear, what an absolute dump. The fixed rides have now been removed and replaced with travelling funfair rides.

The Viper rollercoaster has now gone, and on the huge slab on concrete where it once stood is a "ghost train" on the back of a lorry. The famous Log Flume remains, though its water mostly drained, rubbish strewn across the area and green algae growing the parts which do have water left.

The Jungle ride is still full of water..... green water..... and strewn with rubbish, while the boats remain in the station area, full of holes, partially submerged. A Miami ride is placed infront of it.

The Whacky Gold Mine aka Haunted Mine is now derelict, with letters hanging off the name, and funfair rides placed infront of it to try and hide it.

Most of the picnic benches have been removed, the shops boarded up, and ticket prices are 75p for 1 ticket.

It was thourghly depressing and in an awful state. I remember going there as a kid and the highlight of the trip was always (for me) the Log Flume and the goldmine with the "clink clink clink clink" noise the small wooden carts used to make as they went around the track.

Hate to say it but the best thing they can do now is just pull the whole lot down and rebuild the area with apartments (which I believe is the plan). I believe John still lives in the Barry area however....
 
Excellent book. Very dissapointed with the front cover quality. The photo of Nemesis is very blurry also the text is too.

I advise all geeks to purchase this book.
 
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