Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 383

The London Explorer

Once again using the guides of Peter Jackson, who wrote 'The London Explorer' and 'London Is Stranger Than Fiction' I tried finding more stuff that existed in the 1950s but which is nearly all obliterated now.

One thing that's still there is the iron-gated entrance to St Bride's Church. The boundary wall once ran along [...]

Bryant & May's Bumper Year

Well they may not be coming to TV screens just yet, but my ancient detectives will be with you in other ways.

Coming in August is the last book in my current Bryant & May contract, 'Bryant & May and the Invisible Code'. I've now delivered it, and it's a little longer than usual, with a [...]

It's My 2000th Anniversary!

For the past three and a half years I have been posting almost every day, and this is the two thousandth edition. So today I thought we'd have something a little different.

I suppose I've always taken London taxis a bit for granted, forgetting that the cabbies are really quite unusual people. Here's a chat [...]

Let The Sun Set. Let's Have The New York Times Instead.

With Rupert Murdoch in town to clean out the Augean stables of News International, the general theory is that he'll leave the Sun newspaper twisting in the wind and concentrate on overseas arms. And why not?

Choice isn't everything. The UK may have eleven or twelve national newspapers but it now lacks a single newspaper offering [...]

London's Bermuda Triangle

By now, as a reader of this rambling site, you doubtless think you have the measure of me. Sedate, bookish, prone to trotting out historical facts of interest to a handful of strange but exquisitely tasteful readers.

But there are rambunctious nights that end in oblivion. And a large part of them, it seems, occur [...]

Yayoi Kusama @ Tate Modern

The Tate Modern's latest exhibition is arranged so that you can progress through the decades of Yayoi Kusama's life, which have taken her from rural Japan to the New York art scene to contemporary Tokyo, in a career in which she has continuously re-invented her style.

Her art encompasses an astonishing variety of media, including [...]

A Solitary London Walk

Considering how insanely crowded London can get, it always amazes me when I find myself entirely alone on a London walk. This is generally due to the route I take, but today there was no-one about even at midday. I needed to do a little location research for Bryant & May's new novel, so I [...]

How Reviewers Read

This may be of some use to anyone in publishing PR who wants to make sure that book reviewers read their latest promoted books. Seeing the problem from both sides adds a bit of perspective to the problem.

Reviewers are freelance. Most have written books themselves and are therefore very interested in originality of plots. We [...]

Even Michelangelo Needed The Bathroom

Unexpected things you find in London restaurant bathrooms. Who knew? It's in the basement of the Amalfi restaurant in Old Compton Street – God's hand is pointing at the taps in a reinterpretation of the painting that suggests he's not saying 'Behold The Man' but 'Now Wash Your Hands'.

Re:View – 'Submarine'

I missed Richard Oyoade's debut film when it came out because it got shouted down by the bigger movies around it. My loss, because it's a quiet gem, probably the first film to be made about the unfashionable subject of steadfastness. It's about 16 year-old Oliver Tate, his parents (Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor) his [...]