Our special discount vouchers to Diggerland Theme Parks have been extended to 18 July 2010 due to their popularity. However, this is the final time the 15% discount will be extended. After this date the 15% offer will be withdrawn.

The printable discount vouchers from Joyland Books will give 15% off the entry price to Diggerland, valid at all four parks (Devon, Durham, Kent and West Yorkshire). The offer is valid until 27 June 2010, subject to terms and conditions printed on the voucher. Click here for more details.

Monorails of the World: A History of Passenger Monorails by David Voice is a new release from Adam Gorton Books and is a comprehensive and well illustrated journey through the history of this unique form of transportation.

The history of monorails has four branches: Industrial; Novelty; Urban public transport; and Inter-city public transport. This book covers all four categories in great detail, and is packed full of colour and black & white pictures.

The book includes monorails at Butlin's, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Shipley Glen, Tibidabo, Riverside Amusement Park, Busch Gardens, Carowinds, Phantasialand, Slagharen and many more, with numerous stunning and little-seen photographs. More...

The Hoppings is a major event in the northeast of England. Thought to be the largest travelling fairground in Europe, it takes place in the last full week of June on Newcastle upon Tyne's Town Moor. The Hoppings: Newcastle's Town Moor Fair by Paul Lanagan chronicles the history of the Hoppings from its origins in 1882 as a Temperance Festival through to the 2009 mega-fairground. Containing hundreds of photos covering the Victorian steam machines and modern Millennium thrill rides, this book features faces from the people who make the fairground what it is, plus an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how the fair is set up.

The Fair has developed into a modern travelling fairground and today boasts more than 60 large modern thrill rides. Click here for more details.

The Fairground Organ Appreciation Society publishes an English language quarterly journal, The Key Frame, which is distributed free of charge to members, who, together with authors from all over the world, are encouraged to make contributions to it in the form of articles, reports and anything else of relevant interest.

We have added 21 rare copies of the journal to our Secondhand Store. The copies date from 1967 through to 1975 and are all in very good condition, having been carefully stored throughout their lives. Click here for details.

Don't forget to browse our other secondhand fairground books.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, millions of British people chose to spend their annual summer break at a holiday camp, taking advantage of the all-in package that included accommodation, food, and plentiful entertainment. The market leader was Billy Butlin whose camps operated on a vast scale, and offered a brightly coloured leisure land in contrast to the drabness of post-war rationing. The holiday camp story, however, goes back to the 1890s, and it continues into the present day with signs of a revival in camp fortunes. Holiday Camps by Kathryn Ferry celebrates the communal and the kitsch, glamorous grandmother competitions, chalets, Redcoats and all the other well-known symbols of an incredibly popular form of twentieth-century holiday. Click here for details.

Theme Parkology's Theme Parks Series DVDs capture the stories of how theme parks such as Disneyland and Frontier Village were built, of rides that were or are in operation and of stories that occurred within the park, often told by the people who worked there. In some cases, such as Frontier Village, these parks might have closed down, making these DVDs even more memorable. 

The first releases are Disneyland 1955-1959 and Disneyland 1960-1969, with a DVD focussing on the 1970s out soon. Also available is Frontier Village: A Western Wonderment, which tells the story of this Californian park, from its opening in 1961, to closure in 1980.

Click here for more amusement park DVDs.

When most people think of amusements at Blackpool they immediately think of the Pleasure Beach. Famous throughout the world for the thrills and spills it provides on the Big Dipper, Grand National, Big One and Wild Mouse the park is not the only amusement park to have graced the shores of the Lancastrian resort. But what about the other amusement parks that have come and gone at the resort? In a brand new article by Phil Gould, amusement park nostalgia website themagiceye takes a look at some of the Blackpool pleasure palaces that are sadly no more. This is a mixture of personal memories and information Phil has collected in recent months. Read On...

A pictorial book chronicling the history of the Hoppings fair at Newcastle Town Moor, from the 1882 Temperance Festival through to the 2009 mega-fairground is to be released on 18 June 2010.

The Hoppings: Newcastle's Town Moor by Paul Lanagan contains hundreds of photos covering the Victorian steam machines and modern Millennium thrill rides.  Not just a book for the enthusiasts, the book features hundreds of faces from the people who make the fairground what it is, plus an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how the fair is set up by fairground surveyor Albert Austin.

Pre-orders are now being taken and books will be dispatched on or before the release date. Click here for details.

Following the success of our 10% discount vouchers to Diggerland, the offer has been increased to 15%! The printable discount vouchers from Joyland Books will give 15% off the entry price to Diggerland, valid at all four parks (Devon, Durham, Kent and West Yorkshire). The offer is valid until 27 June 2010, subject to terms and conditions printed on the voucher. Click here for more details.

And don't forget to visit our Discount Theme Park Tickets page, which has all the best discount deals at theme parks. We are featuring new deals at Alton Towers, Drayton Manor, Legoland and Thorpe Park.

The Codona fairground family is a dynasty that has lasted for over two hundred years in Scotland.
 
Travelling showfolk have been entertaining Scots for centuries and a visit to ‘the shows’ was a highlight of the year until recent memory. The Codonas are one of the longest and most established show families, having arrived from the continent in the late eighteenth century. Using original research Showfolk draws on interviews from three generations to give a vivid and richly anecdotal account of this ever-changing world enhanced by many previously unseen illustrations.

Showfolk by Frank Bruce is a unique book, based on first hand interviews and archival research. Click here for details.

Joyland's 10th anniversary is reported in the Essex Chronicle, focussing heavily on Joyland's involvement in the development of the world's first amusement park of thrilling historic rides at Dreamland Margate.

The 10th Anniversary of Joyland Books is featured prominently in Amusement Today magazine, one of the leading trade magazines of the amusement industry.

Following a huge amount of interest, Joyland Books has extended its special offer of discounted tickets to Diggerland theme parks. The printable discount vouchers will give 10% off the entry price to Diggerland for up to 6 people, valid at all four Diggerland parks (Devon, Durham, Kent and West Yorkshire). The offer has been extended to 6 June 2010. Click here for more details.

And don't forget to visit our Discount Theme Park Tickets page, which has all the best discount deals at theme parks. We are featuring new deals at Alton Towers, Drayton Manor, Legoland and Thorpe Park.

The eight rides that are currently being installed on Weston-super-Mare's Grand Pier are nearing completion. The rides, all supplied by Gravitron and representing a £3m investment, include a 300m long go-kart track on two levels, with 22 electric karts reaching speeds of up to 70mph. Also being installed are a helter-skelter, dodgems, a ghost train, a fun house, a mirror maze, a 'groovy house' containing a light show and a 90m observation tower. The overall investment is £51m and the pier is scheduled to open in July 2010.

A large selection of very rare fairground books have been added to the Joyland Books Secondhand Shop. These titles, along with other books added over the past few months, originate from several private collections that Joyland Books has acquired. We now have the largest selection of rare and out-of-print fairground books anywhere in the world. The books include rare copies of Pat Collins: King of Showmen (pictured right), Ups and Downs and Roundabouts by Edwin Corrigan and a promotional collection of Frederick Savage handbills, photos and other ephemera released to tie in with a book on the subject of Savage's by David Braithwaite.

Click here for our Secondhand Fairground Books - new items are highlighted.

10 years ago this month, a small online bookstore appeared on the world wide web, selling amusement park books. Ten years later that bookstore is the world's biggest specialist supplier of amusement park, roller coaster, fairground, circus and seaside books, DVDs and CDs. To celebrate 10 years of this internet institution, amusement park nostalgia website themagiceye goes behind the scenes of Joyland Books and tells the full story. Featuring never-before-seen photos, messages from key people in the world of amusement parks and roller coasters, an interview with Joyland founder Nick Laister, the best books and DVDs of the last 10 years and much, much more, this light-hearted feature is a fitting tribute to Joyland's first 10 years. Click here to enter...

Joyland Books is currently offering printable discount vouchers that will give 10% off the entry price to Diggerland for up to 6 people, valid at all four Diggerland parks (Devon, Durham, Kent and West Yorkshire). The offer is valid until 25 April 2010. Click here for more details.

And don't forget to visit our Discount Theme Park Tickets page, which has all the best discount deals at theme parks. Hurry, through, because tickets for Alton Towers at the special rate of £25 (save £13) are only available if booked before 2 April! These tickets are valid until 1 May.

The world's second biggest attractions operator, Merlin Entertainments, is to take over the running of Blackpool Tower and Louis Tussauds Waxworks. This follows the £40m acquisition of the Tower, Winter Gardens, Sea Life Centre and Waxworks by Blackpool Council, which was reported here at Joyland back in December 2009. This will bring three new international tourism brands to the town, in addition to Merlin's existing Sea Life.

In the Tower complex itself, Merlin will introduce a thrilling new Dungeon attraction and will use its experience in operating the world famous London Eye to develop the current observation platform at the top of the Tower into an exciting new ‘Eye’ branded experience, including a 4D cinema preview show. Additionally, the current Louis Tussauds Waxworks attraction close by will be transformed into the UK's second Madame Tussauds, with all the interactivity and high quality figures associated with this unique brand. 

The New Forest National Park Authority has granted planning permission for the retention of the Edge ride at Paultons Park. The park has posted a message on Facebook and Twitter thanking all those who wrote in support of the application (over 1,400 people). This decision follows the granting of permission for the Cobra roller coaster in December 2009. Both rides had previously been refused by the Authority. The applications for Cobra and Edge were submitted and negotiated by theme park planning adviser Nick Laister of RPS.

Penny slot machines are evocative of seaside holidays and Edwardian amusements, although most have now disappeared from the pier arcades into museums or private collections. They were jolly, colourful and inventive examples of craftsmanship and specifically designed to entertain, amuse - and part customers from their money. Gambling machines, which appeared later, introduced Art Deco styling and raised both the stakes and the prizes; pinball machines were ablaze with decoration.

Amusement Machines by Lynn F Pearson tells the story of these machines, from the first mutoscopes showing 'What the Butler Saw' and working models raising spectres in the 'Haunted House', to fruit and pinball machines. More...

Originally published in 1934, Cheapjack is Philip Allingham's account of the years he spent travelling around the fairs of Britain, earning money variously as a fortune teller, grafter, knocker-worker and mounted pitcher. Golden Duck has reprinted this 1934 classic by the brother of distinguished crime author Margery Allingham.

This new edition has the original text, plus an introduction by Francis Wheen on slumming in the 1930s, Vanessa Toulmin of Sheffield University putting Cheapjack in the context of the secretive society of showmen, hawkers and Gypsy travellers, Julia Jones on Phil, the Allinghams and Margery Allingham's involvement in the book, and over 30 photographs from the National Fairground Archive, The Margery Allingham Society and other sources. Click here for more details.

Back in May and June 2001, Joyland Books presented an exhibition of photographs of Britain's vintage amusement park rides. The exhibition, called 'Golden Oldies' has never been seen since it closed almost nine years ago. Well thanks to amusement park nostalgia website themagiceye, this article has been dusted down and brought back to life and is available in almost its original format, with one or two photographs updated where the quality was too poor for reuse. Surprisingly, nine years after this exhibition was held, over half of the rides featured have either been demolished, dismantled or are standing but not operating. Golden Oldies...

Pleasure Beach Blackpool's iconic 1927 Big Dipper roller coaster is to receive a £500,000 facelift as part of a £2.25m investment in the park for the 2010 season. The main tower and dome has been fully renovated and the station has been upgraded with new murals on the walls and a new onion-shaped fountain (pictured right).

The park's new ride for 2010 - a state-of-the-art Dodgems, which replace the Superbowl Dodgems that were demolished last year - will have new cars inspired by singing superstar Robbie Williams's tattoo designs. This will be located in the former Whip building, below the Revolution.
 

Pleasureland's Haunted Inn was destroyed on Friday night in a devastating fire. The Inn is the oldest surviving original attraction at Pleasureland and the oldest of only five crooked house attractions remaining in the UK (the others being at Adventure Island, Blackgang Chine, MW's Amusement Park and Ocean Beach Pleasure Park).

The Haunted Inn originally opened in 1949 as the Crazy Cottage and was renamed the Haunted Inn in 1988. The attraction was open as part of New Pleasureland in 2009, its 60th year.

Paultons Park in Hampshire has launched a campaign to save one of its most popular rides. The Edge ride was opened for the start of the 2009 season and was the first ride of its type in the UK. The park has recently received an enforcement notice having had a planning application to retain the ride refused in October last year.

The park has now submitted a second planning application for Edge which differs from the original in that The Cobra ride has been excluded as permission for this was granted by NFNPA by a unanimous vote in December 2009. It also includes an assessment of other potential sites for the ride, concluding that the current location is the best place for the ride.
 

Amusement park nostalgia website themagiceye takes a step back in time in an article called Spooks!: The History of Ghost Trains and Other Dark Rides. Ghost trains, haunted gold mines and fantasy boat rides have been a mainstay at amusement parks and travelling fairs for as long as any living person can remember. But very little has ever been written about their history and how they have evolved over the years. So take our seat, keep your hands in the car at all times and – remember – you might just be scared out of your wits! Read on...

This year's Institute for Archaeologists Conference will feature an entire morning session devoted to amusement park heritage. Featuring several speakers on the subject, including John Walton, Nick Laister and Ian Trowell, the session is called 'Fairgrounds for Debate: celebrating the heritage of amusement parks'. It will run from 9.45am to 12.45pm on Thursday 15 April at the Southport Theatre & Convention Centre at Southport, Merseyside. Places can be booked online and it is possible to book for the Thursday only.

Now available from Joyland Books is a new pack of 8 fairground transport art greetings cards with four different designs in each pack (two of each design). The cards feature a range of vehicle types, covering what are now the classic British made lorries of the past, and also some of today's modern transport - catering for all enthusiasts. These are strictly limited editions of only 1,000 cards worldwide.

View the different card designs here...

There were some great new releases in 2009. The Business of Fun DVD took us behind the scenes of the theme park industry and Dollywood in particular, as they constructed their most ambitious roller coaster yet. Theme Park by Scott A lukas was a historical journey through the history of - you guessed it - theme parks! Other top releases included Fairgrounds on Film 1915-1970 DVD, Showmen's Engines at War by Kay Townsend, The Rodeo Switchback by Kevin Scrivens & Stephen Smith and America's Top Roller Coasters and Amusement Parks by Peter Trabucco. Our Secondhand Shop also expanded rapidly this year, particularly the Fairground Books department, with the acquisition by Joyland Books of several private collections.