Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 115

Ten Writing Tips That Work

If you’re coming in a few pages short in your manuscript, switch your typeface to Helvetica – it will add around 6 pages to every 100. Sometimes you can streamline and improve your story by imagining it in a different format, a comic book, a play, a piece of art even. A story is malleable; […]

Forgotten Authors: The Addiction That Can’t Be Cured

Readers sometimes ask, ‘Do your characters live with you 24 hours a day?’ to which I (and I suspect most regularly published authors) answer, ‘No, they live in my computer.’ When I turn my mind to stories I do so seated at a desk, although ideas sometimes run in the background if I’m particularly stuck […]

Bits Of London That Moved: Temple Bar

  Quite a few bits of London aren’t how they once looked and are in the wrong place. We do it to confuse visitors. One that I’m glad is back is Temple Bar. It was one of the original ceremonial gateways to the City of London, used for grand parades into the city; there had […]

The Men Are Being Eclipsed? Fine By Me.

Women, eh? They kept their mouths shut for ooh, centuries and then suddenly they’re all over the place demanding stuff. When an empire declines, when a group feels threatened, the aggression comes out – but in these times it takes new, slyly passive-aggressive forms. Opening the papers yesterday I find a new, subtly appalled article […]

Aspects Of London: The Centre Of Magic

It wasn’t until I started researching magic (with or without the ‘k’) in London for ‘Bryant & May: The Lonely Hour’ (2019) that I realised how central to the world of magic is London. The main problem is that real tangible evidence about magic is highly elusive and often unconvincing – but there’s no denying […]

The Pleasure Of Past Horrors

This weekend sees the return of London’s paperback fair, an event which has seen growing numbers of fans and collectors discovering the delights of the humble MMP. The desire to fetishise old analogue items continues apace, with vinyl, reel-to-reel tape recorders, board games and the mass market paperbacks all undergoing big revivals. This doesn’t mean […]

The Friday Song!

Still grounded and feeling kinda low tonight, so Sufjan suits the mood. He’s usually a bit weedy for me, but I like this melancholy track, used in ‘Call Me By Your Name’, the soundtrack of which is nothing if not eclectic. The first time I heard it, I thought he was saying, ‘Is it a […]

Melodrama: The Unloved Genre

There are only a few categories of film that can be guaranteed to draw fire from critics. Satires, westerns, musicals – and melodramas. This last one has long been out of favour. Historically, a melodrama was a serious play interspersed with  music accompanying the action. Now it means a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events […]

In Praise Of Middle England

The above photograph from Winchester sums it up. It’s leafy and empty, there’s a statue of King Alfred and a branch of Fired Earth, the upmarket glazed tile shop, and somewhere out of sight a round table dedicated to a mythical king. Welcome to Middle England. It’s  not a place like the Midlands or even […]

Bryant & May Return In A Month

  ARTHUR BRYANT: ‘These hippies are selfish and irresponsible. I’ll tell you what made our nation the bastion of patrician morality it is today; the ability to be profoundly miserable. It’s one of our greatest strengths, to be ranked beside shutting the boozers at ten thirty and regarding the waterproof mackintosh as an acceptable item […]