Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 290

Murder, He Wrote

Golden Age crime-writing was not the exclusive province of the British and the Americans. Arthur Upfield is an interesting case because something very disturbing happened to him.

He was born in 1890 in Hampshire, but after faring poorly in his exams (he was planning to become an estate agent) Arthur’s father shipped him off to Australia [...]

Europe Is Another Planet

I was once in Bruges when two pastry-chefs went past on a tandem, while a man dressed as a bear threw sweets at children, and I remember thinking ‘It doesn’t get more European than this.’ Well it does, of course, and here’s pictorial proof.

By the time I got through explaining to our horrified guests why [...]

The Outsider Comes In From The Cold?

I’ve always been a bit of an outsider, even when I’ve had hit novels. I’m certainly not one of those authors with a career plan. This year, though, has been unusual for me. First, a CWA Dagger nomination, and now selection forthe ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards, the run-up to which is currently being televised. I’ve [...]

The Scent Of Roses

Here’s a story I developed out of an idea in ‘Hell Train’. It’s in the latest issue of the very excellent ‘Black Static’ magazine, the sister mag to the equally terrific ‘Interzone’. The story worked out rather well, I thought, but don’t expect to see it in a future collection, as publishers don’t seem to [...]

My Unhealthy Obsession With American Horror Comics

Some while back, under the title ‘Pernicious Muck For Kids’, I wrote here about the Black Cat Mysteries. Now that the book for which I wrote the foreword is out I can publish the whole piece, ideal for those who’d like to read about the corruption of young minds. This is a more detailed version [...]

Light Fantastic

London’s huge 100% Design Fair is currently on, and while it’s always interesting, actually buying anything affordable there is nigh on impossible. If you want something trulyoriginal and independently created, try this is.

I was looking for unusual lights and found the designer Jordi Masvidal by accident. He took a simple idea; the mouldings from Victorian [...]

Re:View – ‘The Best Offer’

It’s very easy to sneer at Guiseppe Tornatore – and critics often do – after all, this was the man who made ‘Cinema Paradiso’, a film about the power of the moving image that reduced grown men to tears and was only grudgingly admired by critics.

Subsequently, the director made a film in English that was [...]

A Tale Of Two Parks

Parks are places where, in theory, you can go to think and be calm. Some, like London’s Victoria Park, were designed to provide a barrier from the ill-humours of the poor and sick, to protect the rich and well. Others were planned as ‘lungs’ for a polluted city.

The park in Harrogate is one of the [...]

The Changing London Of Bryant & May

The creation of every story is in some sense a reaction to the times. When I developed my detectives Bryant & May, London was a different place. In many ways it has changed out of all recognition from the days of ‘Full Dark House’, the first novel in the canon.

The wealth gap has widened and [...]

London Books: The City’s Dark Side

We haven’t had any London books for a while, so here are a few exploring London’s murder miles.

The most traditional of the lot is Mark Herber’s ‘Criminal London: A Pictorial History from Medieval Times to 1939′, although it’s mainly concerned with the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s a piecemeal affair with case histories from Charles [...]