Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 368

Power To The Writer

An interesting article on the Independent today about DR1 made me think. DR1 is the Danish TV company that created The Killing, Bergen and The Bridge. They seem to have succeeded in turning out intelligent popular fiction where the BBC and HBO are failing. But why?

DR1 is a public service broadcaster, but still has to [...]

Castanets At Dawn

In Which Admin Handles Three Hours’ Sleep & An Awful Lot Of Sherry.

Two years ago I posted from the feria at Jerez, the Tio-Pepe-tippling town near Cadiz at the Southwestern tip of Spain close to the African coast. This year I’ve returned to hammer my liver again and attempt bad flamenco moves at the party [...]

A Matter Of Honour

In the bullring at Ronda there’s a bullfighting museum, one of the siderooms of which has a dozen wood and leather cases of duelling pistols. These intricate sets are accompanied by explanations of the entire history of the duel, from two centuries of swords to guns (easier to master), and their rituals (fire in the [...]

Downtime Town

‘You know what people do when they move to Spain?’ my taxi driver told me, ‘they drink and read. It ruins them. Nice weather, though.’

The tiny town of Gaucin, in the mountains above Ronda, isn’t famous for much; it makes a type of sloe-gin and good local tapas, and there are tiny colourful birds everywhere. [...]

Islamophiles In Spain

An afternoon spent in Granada’s Alhambra was fascinating if not exactly soothing, with crowds and a three-hour wait for tickets (prepaid!), although there was plenty to do. Spain’s greatest example of Islamic architecture was built in the 14th century by its Berber rulers. After falling into disrepair for centuries, the Alhambra was rediscovered in the [...]

Spring Into Spain

Today I’m in the Moorish city of Cordoba visiting its extraordinary mosque. The Iberian and Roman city became the capital of an Islamic caliphate in the Middle Ages. At the end of the 10th century it was the most populous city in the world and the intellectual center of Europe.

Much of the city’s fabric [...]

The Questions I Ask Myself

Has anyone ever seen Ed Milliband and Wallace in the same room together?

Love What You Do – You Won’t Get Paid For It

For anyone stumbling across this blog, sorry today’s entry is a bit type-dense. Normally we do knob jokes and LOLcat virals, honest.

This is a piece penned in frustration – never a good idea – but it’s a subject close to my heart. Last night I went to an event for writers, artists and directors, and [...]

Smashing’s Back

This item got deleted due to posting problems, so it’s my pleasure to restore it…

My memoir ‘Paperboy’ was set in the swinging sixties, but just how awful was that period really? Rather than study achingly cool (but charmingly strange) films like ‘Blow Up’, we might be better off looking at the ghastly-yet-eerily-fascinating comedy ‘Smashing Time’ [...]

Britain’s Favourite Artwork

There’s a maxim among creators of any kind of art: You must always remember there are three points to the triangle – the artist, the artwork and the public. London’s Other Art Fair (not to be confused with Frieze or The Affordable Art Fair) commissioned a survey among a thousand British artists to see who [...]