Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 187

Books About Time

It’s surprising that there aren’t more books written about time, and the changing way in which we perceive it. Martin Amis wrote ‘Time’s Arrow’, a reverse-time chronology of moral compromise andAuschwitz, a powerful, bleak, and of necessity ugly read that nevertheless catches the sense of time being ultimately irreversible. Far lighter was Jack Finney’s ‘Time […]

Why We Won’t Need Print Newspapers At All Anymore

So the Independent – which 30 years ago had set out its stall as the UK’s only independent newspaper – shuts down on March 20th. On Friday I filed my four final columns for the paper with an air of great sadness. We have (I think) eleven national newspapers, the majority of which are right-wing. […]

Meanwhile, In The Headquarters Of The KGB…

Behind this door, grotesquely cruel things happened. There’s no actual blood on the floor of the execution chamber but just in case you can’t visualise it, there’s a video playing of dissidents being shot in the head and their insides being sluiced out with buckets of water before they’re bundled into laundry chutes. I’m in […]

One Migrant’s Story

I’m in Lithuania for the weekend. It’s snowing hard and the city of Vilnius is silent and to my London eyes, devoid of people. Maybe they Photoshopped shoppers into this shot (I’ll take my own later). Vilnius has a population of just 2.2m, and is another country that escaped the yoke of the Nazis only […]

Clubbing. Verb. Remember That?

So Paul McCartney just discovered his cut-off date, 73 apparently, after being turned away from a club during the after-party celebrations for the Grammies. First of all, he should have been at home in bed instead of wanting to stand in a roped-off VIP corner of a basement bellowing ‘What?’ while someone shouts in his […]

Two Fabulous Hotels, Both Sadly Fictitious

When Wes Anderson revealed that his charming period comedy ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ was based upon the writings of Stefan Zweig (specifically ‘Beware of Pity’), I was rather surprised, because I automatically assumed it had been based on Arnold Bennett’s equally memorable ‘The Grand Babylon Hotel’. Bennett was that rare thing, a Midlands writer, and […]

The Lost Art Of Painting Posters

This weekend I went to a film fair in Camden Town, and there, sitting quietly surrounded by his artwork (alongside actors Emily Booth and Nicholas Ball) was my old pal Graham Humphreys, the ridiculously modest, charming (and it must be said, deeply eccentric) artist behind some of the most iconic film posters ever painted. The […]

Because You Can Never Have Too Much Shakespeare

What a lot of Shakespeare events are coming up in London this summer – anyone would think there was an important anniversary approaching! There are always new productions of Shakespeare (but still not enough innovative ones, I’d say) so this year some unusual Shakespeare experiments are taking place.I’d love to see ‘Tabletop Shakespeare’, in which […]

True Stories: These American Tales Are Damn Brilliant

My father’s early years as a scientist left an indelible mark on him. He told me; ‘When you want to read an true account or a manual on any subject, make sure it’s written by an American. They explain better and more clearly than anyone because they don’t preach to class.’ I took his advice […]

Making A Splash With ‘Strange Tide’ & Other Events

It’s been an exhausting year, but in March the new Bryant & May hardback hits the stands, along with the paperback version of ‘The Burning Man’ (there’ll be a competition to win copies – details later), and this time I’ll be doing quite a few events and signings around London and the country. From the […]