Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 254

How TV Beat Film To The Water Cooler

For decades television was the poor cousin to film, but how times have changed. When was the last time you heard anyone discussing a movie at the office coffee station? How did cinema get sidelined in favour of television shows? For the answer to that, you have to go back to the birth of cable […]

London’s Pubs Are Falling Down…

I’ve noticed a few new pubs around lately, thanks to some late saves by craft beer outfits – hooray for The Parcel Yard, the Holborn Whippet and the Pig and Butcher, but they’re few and far between and limited to central London. I didn’t realise just how many local pubs had vanished beneath the rapacious […]

The E-Books Are Coming Your Way!

Due largely to popular request, my backlist will shortly be available electronically. Soon there will be a glorious array of repackaged e-books available to download – all of these books are officially out of print and haven’t been seen in years, so I’m thrilled to be getting them back into the public arena. Each novel […]

Charging For Churches

Along with London theatres, political sites and gentlemen’s clubs, churches are among the last buildings to remain fundamentally unchanged in the capital. But while theatres charge a fortune (West End prices have trebled in less than a decade) and clubs are monetising themselves (the venerable Arts club in Dover Street elected Gwyneth Paltrow and became […]

So Much For Technology

After raising my hopes with fast 4G Broadband speed decoupled from my phone’s hard line, new company Relish failed to deliver their much-touted high speed service thanks to repeated dropout and an upload speed at less than a quarter of the level they’d promised, so the box went back. I love technology, but it’s only […]

Re:View – ‘The Borderlands’

Oh good, another found-footage scary movie – but wait, this one’s different because for once there’s an entirely reasonable explanation for the cast covering everything on film. And the way it’s been covered, while not exactly cheating, certainly suggests that a film editor has cut the footage together for theatrical release. And more good news, […]

When Is It Plagiarism, When Is It Homage?

It’s a question that vexed me recently in these columns when we talked about the new TV series ‘Penny Dreadful’ and the very similar books of Kim Newman which long-preceded the series. All artists learn from one another and develop new strands out of the art they admire, others see a commercial main chance to […]

Nine Eternities In Doom!

Hooray! The digitally remastered box-set of Dr Phibes is finally here in pristine condition, with tons of extras and a 100-page book. Sadly, no third disc as the film series never made it to the full trilogy, thanks to a soft opening for the second one and the heads of American International Pictures falling out […]

Crazy Ladies

The postwar years were a golden time for the suspense thriller, climaxing in ‘Psycho’. There was also a slew of wonderful novels from American women, many of whom I’ve discussed in my ‘Invisible Ink’ column. A number of Hammer thrillers with titles like ‘Scream of Fear’ and ‘Nightmare’ were produced, mostly shot around the familiar […]

Real-Life Locations From Bryant & May Novels

I posted this once before, but thought we could kick off a new series here, so it was a good place to start. This is the real coroners’ office where Giles Kershaw works in St Pancras, on Pancras Road, which is also called Midland and Crowndale Roads in different stretches, just to confuse you. Whenever […]