Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 214

Just How Far Can Hollywood Fall?

Once Hollywood had something no other creative technology had; it could marry intellectual ideas with their visual realisation. As a result, it was hailed as the major art-form of the 20th century. It reached something of a peak in the 1960s and 1970s, tackling everything from cosmic significance (‘2001′) and revisionist history (‘The Charge Of […]

Strange Goes From Strength To Strength

We are now four episodes into the lavish BBC version of Susanna Clarke’s award-winning ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell’. It continues to get to the meat of this huge trilogy, drawing out the core of the story in a way that’s far more successful than the BBC’s adaptation of ‘Gormenghast’, with its soap-star casting. Here, […]

Strange & Wonderful

It’s a sure bet that if the Daily Mail doesn’t like something I’m going to love it. They were true to form about the long-anticipated lavish BBC version of Susanna Clarke’s award-winning ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell’. To be fair, hardly any UK hacks liked the start, but then they liked ‘Game of Thrones’, the […]

T & Biscuits

You know how awful most souvenir T-shirts are? Well, the lovely folk at The Londonist are bidding to change all that. They’re currently selling very London Ts that are actually sweet and funny. Try these for size, from their stockist, More T Vicar, here;

Cool Stuff: Fireworks From The Rocket’s POV

An occasional spot for fun virals doing the rounds. This was achieved by flying a DJI Phantom 2 through a firework display and filming it with a GoPro Hero 3 silverdrone. It would be even better in 3D. Not sure about the choice of music but at least it’s not Katy Perry for a change!

After Lost Rivers, Vanished Neighbourhoods

In 2011 I wrote the foreword for a book called ‘London’s Lost Rivers’ by Tom Bolton. Unlike other books on the subjects it was the first comprehensive walker’s guide, and showed you how to trace the path of the rivers overground. Along the way there were tidbits about the rivers themselves – but as a […]

US Scribes Thrash UK Hacks Shock!

When I was a teenager I decided I wanted to be a journalist. As luck would have it, I knew a couple who worked on the Mirror and the Mail (when it was a broadsheet), but they warned that the face of British journalism was about to change. The era of hot-type was coming to […]

‘Gilded Needles’ Is Back

Michael McDowellfrequently returned to the idea of matriarchal, dynastic revenge in his books, and his wonderfully chatty style made it feel as if he was imparting a terrible piece of gossip while describing all manner of disturbing events.‘Gilded Needles’ is a vivid historical tintype of old New York that forms the backdrop to a nightmarish […]

How London Design Goes Wrong

Why is it that good design ideas in London so often get screwed up? I think of the astoundingly ugly Orbit Tower in the Olympic Park, which they’re now thinking of sticking a slide inside to encourage someone to like it, or the grotesquely disproportionate, naff statue of the kissing couple in St Pancras Station, […]

London’s Second-Biggest House Faces A Dilemma

Buckingham Palace is the biggest house in London. What’s the second biggest? That would be the Grade II listed house Witanhurst in Highgate, once owned by Sir Arthur Crosfield, the English soap and candle magnate, who had the place designed in Queen Anne style. He chose Witanhurst, a combination of the old Anglo-Saxon words “witan” […]