Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 276

Mistakes In Latvia: Day Two

Started off being too loudly friendly, frightened everyone off. The history of Latvia is one of enduring hardship and occupation, which probably accounts for the quiet reserve of its people.

The January cold is a living thing here that bites and gnaws. It actually hurts. Warding it off involves hot chocolate, gloves, hats, dead furry objects, [...]

Mistakes I Have Made In Latvia So Far

Two weeks ago Latvia switched to Euros, so I have the wrong money.January has a special kind of cold, a Russian cold that cuts deep into your heart and numbs your brain, rendering all normal thought impossible. I’ve quickly discovered the flaws in my wardrobe, the sweater that doesn’t quite cover my midriff, and even [...]

It’s All In The Twist

Man, I love twist endings. But only on one condition; that they stand a story on its head and make you see everything differently, that they make you realise how the story all falls into place and how that’s what it could only ever have been, only you didn’t spot it.

My partner spots everything. ‘She’s [...]

Quotes From My Non-Bryant & May Books No.4

‘Darkest Day’ was my fourth novel and my second bash at incorporating Bryant & May into a supernatural thriller, and again I wasn’t happy with the result. I had been bullied into adding the supernatural elements by the publishers, and had argued for writing a straight crime novel, but no, we ended up with ‘Night [...]

Baltic Exchange

I wanted to go somewhere snowy and Northern, but sadly my conscience can’t allow me to go to Putin’s corrupted and despoiled Russia while homophobic hatred is on the political agenda, so instead I’m on my way to Latvia. Sandwiched between Estonia and Lithuania, opposite Sweden across the Baltic, is the Latvian capital, Riga, which [...]

Sweariest Film Ever, But Not So Shocking

It says a lot about the British habit of cussing that I didn’t even notice how much swearing was in ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’, apparently the sweariest film for many years. We love a good bout of inventive invective. I guess the problem with ‘Wolf’ ( and I loved the film as a black [...]

A Bit Of Maths: Witchcraft In Lincoln’s Inn

The first murder in ‘The Invisible Code’ was intended to echo traditional ideas of image-magic, that is, the making and mutilating of waxen voodoo dolls. Other ways of placing curses on people involved putting something at the location of the victim, from chalked runic marks and placing witch bottles to dead animals and ‘cursed’ objects.

Lincoln’s [...]

Urban Philosophers

I’m a great believer in discovering the philosophies of others, although it took me many years to be persuaded that they were a Good Thing. When I go abroad, I tend to talk to people or let them talk to me, and one time set out to buy a diary in Cairo and ended up [...]

Quotes From My Non-Bryant & May Books No.3

‘Red Bride’ was a real oddity, a novel for which the publishers had high expectations, running a poster campaign and extensive advertising. It got good reviews but utterly bombed, virtually killing my career. All I can think is that it came at the very end of the fashion for supernatural books.It was about a man [...]

An Addict Confesses

I

t’s a new year; time to face facts. I’ve decided to come clean on this blog and admit what I’ve known for years, but could never face up to. I can’t help myself. I am an addict. I can’t get enough of them, ever, and the ones that used to do the trick are now [...]