Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 327

Dial Backlash/Disconnect For Murder

As an avowed ‘dark’ novelist I love hearing about new ways to kill people, but this one’s so shockingly obvious I’m amazed it took someone so long to figure it out. With a custom-built transmitter installed into your mobile phone, you can signal an I.C.D.(implantable cardioverter-defibrillator)from 30 feet away andzap 830 volts into someone’s pacemaker, [...]

Never Sit In The Front Row

Feeling Christmassy, I went to see Meow Meow in cabaret on the South Bank last night (resplendent with its German Christmas market and amazing pink and blue neon colour washes – the South Bank, not the artiste, although I wouldn’t put it past her – only to find that I had booked front row centre.probably [...]

London Books – I Give Up!

I’m currently researching the next Bryant & May book by visiting the area around Bleeding Heart Year, and reading some new London books, but this month there has been a veritable avalanche with simply too many to cover or recommend here – some thirty volumes!

These are the ones I’m studying for ‘Bryant & May and [...]

5 Reasons To Visit The West End This Week

1. It’s all gone a bit Santa. I’m staying well away from Trafalgar Square at the moment as I do not wish to be pelted with sprouts. In fact there are far too many Santas around at the moment; on roller skates, covered in lights, in saucy bikinis. Enough now. And don’t keep shouting out [...]

Could You Be Less Specific?

There were a million things I could have done last night – standing in an abandoned biscuit factory in Bermondsey was not high on my list. It was freezing cold. It was pitch black. But we were gathered there to the latest experimental site-specific event by Shunt, the company favoured by the National Theatre to [...]

My Top Five Apps

My iPad Mini is, I realised, basically an adult toy (easy, Grandma) that’s fun to browse while you’re watching something undemanding on TV. As I don’t watch TV it means I browse while I’m listening to music or stuck in the dullest part of a Bella Tarr movie I have to watch for jury duty.

Here’s [...]

Re:View – ‘The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey’

The fourth film in the series is not for purists. JRR Tolkien’s short book was far lighter and less substantial that LOTR, and therefore needs tricking out with extra plot if it’s to fulfil the studio’s brief of three 3-hour 3D movies. Yet this isn’t automatically a bad thing. LOTR made all kinds of similar [...]

Bryant & May Come To Life

‘The Casebook Of Bryant & May is now on the way from PS Publishing. You can read about its genesis at Down The Tubes here. The elegantly slipcased edition is now ordering and we’ll be signing at Forbidden Planet in January. I’m thrilled with what Keith has done, and if we sell out the limited [...]

A Horribly Honest Note From A Reviewer To Authors

Dear fellow authors, as my cupboard silts up with soon-to-be-published novels to consider for reviewing, here are a few observations culled from my fellow reviewers that may shock you.

1. Don’t let your PR team stick a roundel on the cover calling you ‘The New Jo Nesbo’ – it’s wrong and offensive, to Nesbo, for dismissing [...]

A Good West End Show? The Odds Are Against You.

Geographically, London is a unique city. Because of fire, plague and war it has been continually rebuilt, and has gradually moved from East to West. And because it has always had so many residents right at its centre, each zone kept a distinct feel well into postwar years. Soho had a high population of council [...]