Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 248

London In The Dock

Alan Patrick Herbert should have more readers. He served in two world wars, survived Gallipoli, was a longstanding member of parliament and a social reformer who worked to end outdated divorce and obscenity laws, and was knighted by Churchill. He wrote the lyrics to popular songs and shows, and once highlighted the complexity of the […]

Re:View – ‘Cheap Thrills’

It’s got to the point now where the words ‘low budget horror film’ turn me off completely. Apart from the paucity of their imagination, they usually have no moral compass and therefore events carry no dramatic weight. Every once in a while you do find a gem, though, and this is one. ‘Horror’ is perhaps […]

Backstories To The Bryant & May Books No.4

Bryant & May On The Loose In rush-hour King’s Cross, one of the busiest crossing points in Britain, finding a murderer would be a nightmare for any force. But when a decapitated body is found in a shop freezer, London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit is not summoned – because the unit has been disbanded, and elderly […]

Do You Want Mash With That?

One of the most intriguing musical art-forms to emerge through online creativity has been the mashup – it’s been with us for the best part of a decade and yet it still manages to surprise me when it works well. I’ve long been a fan of DJs like Zebra, Pogo and Armin Van Buuren (who […]

Frightening New Collection Coming

There are going to be a total of twenty books from me coming out as e-editions this year, including nearly all of my short stories, and a brand-new collection of short stories entitled: ‘Frightening’. I hope to be able to price this below the usual level to encourage new readers. I’d told myself I wasn’t […]

London Gets A New Museum

It’s one of the great shames of London that it no longer has a Theatre Museum. The Covent Garden venue was closed down and its collections went to the V&A. Now, though, the Museum of Comedy (not to be confused with the Cartoon Museum) has opened its doors in Bloomsbury, and has a website here. […]

Backstories To The Bryant & May Books No.3

White Corridor The unthinkable has happened at London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit. A key member of staff has been found murdered, and everyone who works there is suddenly a suspect. But Bryant and May aren’t on hand to solve the crime. They’re stranded on a desolate snowbound section of country road. As the blizzard worsens, they […]

Lights Out One Last Time

Last night, 1,700 people attended a final concert from Westminster Abbey featuring poetry, music and speeches from the First World War, and the televised event proved an extraordinarily moving and powerful experience. The service of remembrance was conducted surrounding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier As lights were turned off across the nation to […]

Come The Digital Revolution

There was once a TV show, younger readers, called ‘Tomorrow’s World’, which showed what might be waiting for us around the corner. Except that for all its breathless excitement, it usually managed to emphasise the wrong things. The quiet, boring stuff to do with pipes and lenses was what really revolutionised the world, not lenticular […]

Oh No It Isn’t! America Discovers Panto

Every winter for the past 300 years Britain has been putting up with pantomimes. They’re a rite of growing up; the chance to sit with a thousand screaming, sticky-faced anklebiters and their parents while some washed-up TV actors and one-hit singers (Susan ‘Bobby’s Girl’ Maughan! Denise Nolan! Bobby Davro!) ham their way through a script […]