Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 192

Star Wars: A Writer’s View

No spoilers The Force can’t be resisted. ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ is the fastest-grossing film in history because it needed to be; the studio had to release high box office figures to jump-start a vast array of movie sequels and spin-offs that will power spending for years to come. Press editors around the world […]

Oddments Of 2015

What happened this year? London got a Triffid street, Apple brought out a watch nobody seems to want and a number of the capital’s less-known attractions closed down, like the Type Museum and the De Morgan Foundation Collection of antiquities – but are they actually gone? Attractions seem reluctant to announce their closure and the […]

Bryant & May Act Their Age

When I research a Bryant & May novel I don’t just source locations and history; I talk to people, and if I want to know how seniors cope now (my own parents and grandparents having gone) I find ones willing to chat. With 1 million seniors living alone in the UK and half of them […]

Best & Worst Films Of 2015

At the birth of film there were stories about great achievers, from Nelson to Washington. Last week I watched a film about a woman who invents a mop and manages to sell it on QVC. Not exactly Scott of the Antarctic. Joyis directed by David O Russell and stars Jennifer Lawrence.The performances are nice, but […]

Merry Christmas From Bryant & May!

‘You should just think of it as a day off,’ said Alma Sorrowbridge. ‘Relax, have a glass of sherry, eat some mince pies and watch Bruce Forsyth.’ ‘As it seems the entire country has been doing since the old king died,’ complained Bryant, pulling his ratty maroon dressing gown around him and sinking further into […]

‘Watchmaker’ Runs Like Clockwork

It’s taken a long time for critics to realise that some of the finest writing in the world is – and always has been – fantasy literature, and that it takes many forms, from, say, John Crowley’s ‘Little, Big’ to Natsume Soseki’s ‘I Am A Cat’. But how do you attract the right readership? It’s […]

Neglected Films 15: The Night They Raided Minsky’s

A few readers have asked me to revive this column, which I discontinued a couple of years ago. (You’ll find the old columns all stored here if you’re looking for unusual films). In the late 1960s audiences tired of old-fashioned pictures and made ‘Easy Rider’ a hit. The studios were caught out. What were they […]

Star Wars & Me

This is about ‘Star Wars’ from the London end. One evening in 1977 we gathered in the Blue Posts,a strange rockabilly pub at the bottom of Tottenham Court Road that looked like a one-storey plank shack (eventually torn down and replaced with a concrete box housing the Muji store) and grabbed a few beers before […]

My First Panto

…as an adult, at least. As a kid I went all the time, but if you don’t have children you forget what they’re like, and if you go with someone who has no cultural reference points for such an event – well, you have a hard time explaining what the hell is going on and […]

The Homeworker’s Cookbook 1: Spicy Chicken & Egg Soup

Wherever you are in the world and whatever you’re doing, if work at home it’s still very easy to stop eating properly. Where I live in London (between three major stations) I’m surrounded by takeout joints, 90% of which are either cheap, pretty good offerings of world cuisine, or total rubbish like McDonalds, so I […]