Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 179

They’re Tough To Run But We Need These

Britain may once have been a nation of shopkeepers but it’s not anymore. In a world of corporate brandssuch places are a breath of fresh air; those weird small shops and privately owned places that make a neighbourhood special. London always had thousands, but can they still be found? I speak as someone who remembers […]

‘Victoria’ Puts Right What Hollywood Gets So Wrong

If there was ever a film that revealed the growing gap between an increasingly isolated, risk-averse and irrelevant Hollywood and the rest of the world, it’s ‘Victoria’. Sebastian Schipper’s real-time movie is a total triumph, but you wouldn’t think so to read some of the reviews. The plot is simplicity itself. A young Spanish girl […]

‘Roofworld’ And ‘Spanky’ Are Both Back

‘The lightness of the author’s touch conceals an underlying narrative of alienation,’ fellow author Joanne Harris says about me, adding, ‘perhaps this is why, in spite of having won countless genre awards, he has never received the mainstream acclaim he so deserves. Perhaps it is the sheer scope and variety of his output that continue […]

‘Roofworld’ Is Finally Back

‘The lightness of the author’s touch conceals an underlying narrative of alienation,’ fellow author Joanne Harris says about me, adding, ‘perhaps this is why, in spite of having won countless genre awards, he has never received the mainstream acclaim he so deserves. Perhaps it is the sheer scope and variety of his output that continue […]

My Desert Island Movies This Saturday!

So, this Saturday May 14th at the Cinema Museum in London’s Elephant & Castle, I’ll be talking to film expert Barry Forshaw about my Top Ten Movies – we’ll be discussing why film images are so important to us, and how we come to pick favourites. There’s a bar and a shop, and it’s a […]

Raymond Kirkpatrick On The English Summer

Raymond Kirkpatrick is a colleague of Arthur Bryant’s. The bear-like heavy metal-loving Professor of English is currently working at the British Library and is our occasional guest speaker. His opinions are very much his own. ‘So I get up half an hour late and heave myself down the Euston Road to the British Library, trying […]

What Happened To Black Comedy?

Where and when did the idea of black comedy come into being, and what happened to this distinctive literary genre? Let’s start by defining terminology. Black comedyinvolves a work that makes light of serious, disturbing and possibly taboosubjects. It corresponds to the earlier concept of ‘gallows humour’ andis often controversial due to its subject matter. […]

Places That Should Be Used In SF Movies

I’m back in London after completing another trip to dig out research material for a book, although some of what I found may never be used. Take my visit to Science City in Valencia. The complex was only recently finished, but has been dogged with scandal throughout its construction. It has sadly become a symbol […]

Around & Under Piccadilly Circus

The lovely Londonist website is currently running a nice feature on the secrets of Piccadilly Circushere, including the most famous fact – that Eros isn’t called Eros and spent a great deal of its time facing the wrong way – the delicate aluminium statue is usually called theAngel of Christian Charity and was built in […]

Could Novellas Be The Happiest Medium?

We know that people in the work force don’t have enough time to read as much as they did. Through school and after retirement reading is in fine shape, but the biggest loss is male readership between 20 and 50. Crime reading is now largely driven by women, SF has lost ground, being traditionally male, […]