Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 201

‘The Sand Men’ Is Out Today!

I had a lot of self-doubt while writing The Sand Men. It doesn’t conform to the traditional shape of a novel, and it has an unusual trick up its sleeve. There are two central dramas, one of which is resolved, and one of which is left open. There’s also a third puzzle in the book […]

Mad Tales Of London No.1: The Berners Street House

This is an occasional series I’m starting to inspire you (and me!) about London, and to remind us that it can be as mad as an old man’s trousers. In 1810 the chap above, Theodore Hook, had a wager with a mate, Sam Beazley – that he could make any house in London the most […]

What Can I Call Bryant & May Fans?

It all started with a marketing campaign for ‘Glee’ and the creation of a fanbase known as ‘Gleeks’. Soon enough Sherlock Holmes had his (somewhat dubious) ‘Cumberbitches’ and Dexter had his ‘Dexheads’. So when a friend asked me ‘What do your fans call themselves, then?’ I answered, ‘Personally I’m just grateful to have any at […]

Nightwalking

I’ve come to the party rather late on this one, I know, probably because it was a little overlooked here in the UK, where it didn’t even get shown at Frightfest, but ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’ from director Ana Lily Amirpouris is one of the most interesting vampire films to come along […]

Strange Thames

I’m not always able to use up all the research I do on my books – the novels would become dry tomes indeed if they just consisted of wall-to-wall facts (cf. Dorothy L Sayers’ ‘The Nine Taylors, with more info on campanology than anyone could ever want). So a lot gets left out. Next year […]

Kurt Vonnegut Explains All Stories

This weekend I’m heading for Leeds to teach a class about telling scary short stories at SlungLow’s Fun Palace. After I’d written what I was going to say, this came to my attention via a guy called Ian Mason, who suggested that Christopher Booker’s ‘The Seven Basic Plots’ was a rip-off of this clip (not […]

‘London’s Nightly Carnival’

London is not ‘the city that never sleeps’. It has an engine – the low hum of business – that awakes at around 5:30am, and goes to sleep again towards midnight. The timings have always been the same, although before the wars of the 20th century and the rationing of travel Londoners ate much later. […]

‘The Burning Man’ Comes True

It’s the fiery season – a time of insurrection and flame. In ‘The Burning Man’, Bryant & May’s twelfth outing, London is on fire. Rioters are protesting against a banking scandal that has allowed a financier to make a fortune from insider trading. The book was based on the recent banking riots and suggested that […]

The Return Of Piccadilly’s Cinemas

A boxy screen and sticky steps, shuffling punters and fag smoke…the old cinemas of Piccadilly Circus were drenched in melancholy, a place where loners passed time waiting for homegoing trains, most of which were one an hour. The shows were each an hour in length and showed cartoons and newsreels. The cinemas also attracted lonely […]

Attempting The Impossible

When you write stand-alone novels, they live or die on their believability, their premise, their atmosphere, and the trickiest part is getting all the elements in balance first time around (there’s usually no second chance for a standalone, although John Fowles rewrote ‘The Magus’). With a series, if you’re lucky and it doesn’t damage sales, […]