Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 158

20 Reasons To Be Fearful

Ah, the sun is shining, the birds have stopped coughing long enough to whistle a little tune and you feel momentarily good, don’t you? Allow me to wipe that cheery smile off your face. A quick round-up of the UK’s top stories this morning revealed these gems. ‘Arctic ice melt brings uncontrollable climate change at […]

Describe Your Childhood In One Word.

A new international study has warned that British children are now among the least active in the world. Research comparing the activity levels of children in 38 countries put England, Wales and Scotland behind Ireland, Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates. Scottish children are the worst. Also, ‘Generation Stress’ millennials are now suffering from ‘old […]

‘Under The Shadow’ Reinvigorates The Horror Genre

I love a good scare. The trouble is that there haven’t been any good ones in quite a while. And I’m a demanding customer; I also want to be made to think. My benchmark films range from ‘It Follows’ back through ‘The Orphanage’ to ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, about which there’s an interesting article here, arguing that […]

Writing 101: What A Good Editor Will Do

Sometimes I get bugged when people say they ‘haven’t got around to writing a book’ as if it’s a whiffly-whaffly hobby you pick up, like doing some knitting. Writing is a real challenge, I’m still learning, and the process is long. What’s more, it doesn’t end when you think it does. Next comes editing. Editing […]

World Class Stupid

It should have been a popular protest, recognised by the government and incorporated into legislation. Instead it was allowed to become law by a weak politician. It was seized upon by the ignorant and ignored,spread by fear and hatred, and allowed into positions of power the very people who would ignore the protestors. But enough […]

Writing 101: The Year We Went Dumb

“The love of the painter standing alone and staring, staring at the great coloured surface he is making. Standing with him in the room the rearing canvas stares back with tentative shapes halted in their growth, moving in a new rhythm from floor to ceiling. The twisted tubes, the fresh paint squeezed and smeared across […]

Some Recommended Christmas Reading Part 1

You know you’ll have a bit of spare time to yourself in the coming weeks, and it might be a good time to catch up on a book or two. Here are a few I can wholeheartedly recommend. Where do you start, though? So I’ve picked few I’ve just happened to read or reread… Crooked […]

Writing 101: Are You A Thief?

This is a new occasional column about the nuts and bolts of writing. Today we look at copying your work from others, or merely being influenced by them. First, listen to this. It’s Hans Zimmer’s music for the title sequence of the TV series ‘The Crown’, and if you think it sounds familiar, that’s because […]

The Friday Song: A Response To Evangelists

Researching the previous piece depressed me so much I needed something a little more upbeat with which to end the week. Here, Jesus teaches Jimmy to give up marijuana, from the extraordinarily blasphemous (and hilarious) ‘Reefer Madness’, made for US TV!

Evangelists: Isis On A Profit-Share

What happened to turn freedom-loving Brazil into the world’s most dangerous place to begay? Incredibly, 1,500 people have been murderedin anti-LGBT hate attacks over the last four years. The actual count is likely to be a lot higher because these are just the figures officially held by police. Likewise rising crime figures in Uganda, Russia, […]