Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 391

Exploding Taste Buds

I can never be sure if Bompas and Parr, London's iconoclastic jellymongers, are merely foisting some kind of elaborate joke on us all. Their neon funeral jellies, architectural foodstuffs and ouija-board tea towels are impressive, but how often do you want desserts that glow in the dark?

Be that as it may, they're hosting a [...]

Where Are Arthur And John?

Keeping track of various members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit has always been a bit of a puzzler for readers, but I hope this forms a definitive appearance list.

Janice Longbright, Colin Bimsley and Ian Hargreave, the policeman Janice used to date, all appear in my very first novel 'Roofworld'.

Bryant and May make their first appearance [...]

Charles Dickens at the Museum of London

This excellent exhibition is the first major Dickens show for forty years, and occupies the lower ground floor of the museum for the next six months. Included are the expected (Dickens's writing desk, quill, letters, ledgers, annotated copies of books) and the unexpected (his velvet-covered lectern, a perfectly constructed object to read from, complete with [...]

Five Gifts From London

I meant to do this before Christmas, but ran late – so here's a round-up of gifts for the new year. All of the items below can be purchased online from the Museum of London shop, and the last comes from Davenports online store.

How about a waving HRH? She's solar-powered, which means that Her Maj [...]

The Hell Train Compo!

To celebrate today's launch of 'Hell Train', my supernatural thriller that's an homage to Hammer and a return to freestanding novels, I'll be mailing out a first edition of the book signed, dated and drawn upon by both myself and Graham Humphries, the legendary horror film artist and creator of this cover – all you [...]

Re:View – 'The Iron Lady'

The obvious, and most repeated comment about Phyllida Lloyd's new film is that Meryl Streep gives an extraordinary performance as Margaret Thatcher. But it is a picture of Thatcher in decline, as her battle with Alzheimer's occupies what feels like nearly half of the film's running time. We begin in the present, with a visibly [...]

Let's Talk About The Weather

So said the schoolgirls in 'The Pirates of Penzance' when confronted with something more serious, but on George Monbiot's excellent site there's a report about how the forecasting of the British weather became politicised after the UK right-wing press began making predictions using a couple of meteorological companies, neither of whom had prediction track records.

It's [...]

Everybody Out!

If New York is The City That Never Sleeps, London has always been the City That's Very Quiet On A Sunday Morning. Here's an excellent blog I should have also mentioned, as Ian visits the centre of the city on Christmas morning and notes the rare eerie silence here.

London is now hard to see behind [...]

Five Of My Favourite Sites

I started this blog with the sole intention of discussing books, largely my own, but it clearly wasn't meant to be. I wasn't keen on the idea of too much navel-gazing and I don't get enough work published or broadcast to fill a daily blog. Besides, there are too many other things in which I'm [...]

The 'Hell Train' Competition

'Hell Train' will be published as an original paperback from Solaris in three days' time, and to celebrate I have signed, dated and doodled on a first edition of the book, which will also be signed by the cover artist Graham Humphries. I'll be posting this book to the first person who correctly answers a [...]