Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 275

Re:View – ‘Metro Manila’

*No Spoilers*

Young director Sean Ellis has hit upon a wheeze recently used by two other directors who have found that there’s no money to film in Britain unless you’re making period snoozefests like ‘The Other Woman’ or doom-laden arthouse fare like ‘The Selfish Giant’. Gareth Jones and Gareth Evans made the startling ‘Monsters’ (shot in [...]

Sold Out

London has quietly opened a new theatre.

The Globe’s new Sam Wanamaker Theatre is named after the man who spent much of his life restoring Shakespeare’s Globe to London. The idea is to create the real sensation of early theatre, performing in a space lit by candlelight.

The Guardian had this to say: ‘The experience is exact [...]

A Site More Interesting

I’ve been threatening this for ages, but now the time is right for an overhaul of this site, getting rid of the sidebars, cleaning it up and making it simpler and fresher to navigate. The process should be seamless, and will happen in the next few weeks.

Thanks and farewell then, to lovely Simon Moore, the [...]

Wall Street Wolves and American Hustlers: 6 More Things That Make Crime Writing Harder

‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘American Hustle’ are modern spins on age-old con stories, but they get it right. Given the number of crime novels out there these days, you need to do something special to stand out from the crowd, but when you’ve found your characters and milieu, you then have to cope [...]

Wall Street Wolves and American Hustlers: 6 Things That Now Make Crime Writing Harder

Interviewed about ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ recently, Leonardi DiCaprio said he’d seen a lot of his heroes disappear. It’s not just our role models who have vanished – if you’re thinking of trying your hand at writing crime – still the most popular form of fiction in the world – don’t look to the [...]

Quotes From My Non-Bryant & May Books No.5

Looking at it now, I’m astonished by how vicious and surreal the satire is in ‘Psychoville’ (the title of which was nicked by Reece Shearsmith for his TV show, after he had seen the book in my flat). It began as a deeply felt personal project but turned into a tightly plotted but outrageously perverse [...]

Why London Libraries Are Really Dangerous

It’s the question every author dreads; ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ But I can answer in some confidence – London. And I’ll never run out of them.

Walking out your research only gets you so far; you head for the site of a Tudor beheading and find a new office block on it. Talking [...]

Londonheads

Recent forensic evidence came in from 39 heads found under London Wall in 1988.

Scores of skulls excavated in the heart of Londonhave provided the first gruesome evidence of Roman head hunters operating in Britain, gathering up the heads of executed enemies or fallen gladiators from the nearby amphitheatre, and exposing them for years in open [...]

If You’re Really Bored…

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter, the former under ChristopherRobertFowler, the latter under Peculiar. I just posted more shots of Latvia so you’ll find them on FB.

Going Mad In Latvia: Day Three

The book hand-off across Riga between old and new libraries took stamina in these temperatures, but the sight of so many adults and children passing books across the city was a joy. My friend Izabella once went to Arkangel. I asked her, was it as cold as this? She said ‘No, this is colder.’

So a [...]