Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 245

Getting ‘Lost’ In Tokyo

So, first time in Japan, yes I negotiated the toilet instructions and the art of who bows when and why. I even managed to remember the rules of the Onsen. But I was finally undone by the more extreme end of the sushi spectrum, which involved jellified fish-faces in tiny bowls of what tasted like […]

What Does An Agent Do?

I’ve been asked this so many times – ‘Do I need an agent? Don’t they just take a percentage from you and do nothing for it?’ To which I can only answer, absolutely not, the good ones don’t. Just because Amazon has promoted some amateur writers who have got to the top of their Direct-To-Ebook […]

Goodbye To The Lad From Wagga-Wagga

BILL KERR: ‘What does he mean, we’re falling to bits?’ TONY Hancock: ‘Oh dear, look what you’ve done, you’ve set him off now. He’ll be holding his breath and looking in the mirror every five minutes waiting for something to drop off. (Shouts) It’s alright, Bill, you’re ticking away like a mad thing. You’ve got […]

London Corners: Hackney Empire

Empires rise and fall, none mores than the music hall empires of old. The Hackney Empire was raised at the very start of the 20th century, a techno-marvel with central heating and electric lights. Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and Marie Lloyd (a local girl) all appeared there, followed by Louis Armstrong, Tony Hancock, and Liberace. […]

The Author As Traveller

One thing writers need constantly is fresh inspiration, otherwise we end up writing about writers writing. I travel whenever I can, which is to say, when there’s time and money. Living next door to an international railway station (sorry, I can’t bring myself to use ‘train station’) means that I can get anywhere in Europe […]

Britain In Half-Light

Last year I wrote this about films like ‘Fish Tank’ and ‘The Selfish Giant’, and the cliches of British neo-realism. ‘Usually there are long-held shots in silent fields at half-light. Here the Midlands landscape is harsh and as alien as Mars, but the families are always the same – broken, illiterate, incontinent with children, angry […]

The Woad To London

The old name for King’s Cross, where I live, is Battle Bridge, and this weekend it will be subjected to Roman invasion all over again to celebrate the legend of Boadicea (I’m sticking to the old spelling – it changes every decade). She supposedly fought her last battle with the Romans there. Typically, she was […]

B&M / Q&A

Don’t believe that publishers spend their time waiting for authors to deliver. Much of our lives are spent waiting for publishers to decide. While I’m in a holding pattern over the fate of Bryant & May, and a number of other works, here’s a Q&A I did recently about writing. ‘The Bleeding Heart is the […]

Is The Fringe Killing Itself?

In the view of our current arts-hating present government, theatre is something that must pay its own way and turn a profit by putting on populist shows for punters. That’s fine for the West End, I suppose (it wasn’t once, but let’s not dwell). And London has – or at least, had – an […]

Five Great London Blogs

I don’t know how Diamond Geezer does it, but somehow he manages to blog a substantial article every day at a pace which would make most press journalists blanche, and he covers an extraordinary range of London subjects, all explored with his mix of curiosity, annoyance and charm. One of the funniest pieces he’s written […]