Circus

Alistair MacLean writes:

The credit, if that’s the word I’m searching for, for the idea behind this book does not belong to me. It belongs to Mr Irwin Allen, who is the Head of Production for the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

Last summer Mr Allen invited my wife and myself to fly out to Los Angeles. I was delighted to go. Come our discussion he suggested I write an espionage story based on an American circus travelling in Europe. It sounded to me like a very good idea. I trust, hopefully, it still is.

Mr Allen, who is not a person to do things by halves, flew us to Chicago. There he took us to Ringling Bros — Barnum and Bailey Circus, which the owner, Mr Irvin Feld, claims to be the Greatest Show on Earth. Don’t forget the capitals. Mr Feld is not exaggerating. It is. Normally I don’t care for circuses. This was an outstanding exception. Just how it impressed me you’ll find out in this book.

The other essential ingredient, that of the putative existence of anti-matter, is my own. I have always been fascinated by matters scientific and have now educated myself to the extent that I can understand almost five per cent of the articles in Nature and The Scientific American. I did, as it happens, raise the subject of anti-matter — I believe I was the first writer to do so — some twelve years ago in a book called The Dark Crusader. All I know is that if it can exist or be created it’s very nasty stuff indeed.

So I just took the two ideas and married them. I trust the courtship will continue far beyond the wedding day.

Alistair MacLean