Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 395

The Mystery Of The Vanishing Statues

On the North side of Blackfriars Bridge stands the grand art deco building known as Unilever House. Whenever I passed I always noticed the beautiful statues decorating it that were designed by Sir William Reid Dick called 'Controlled Energy', and above them were arranged a line of statues whom I assumed were famous figures. They [...]

Dickens Turns 200: A Celebration

To celebrate the bicentennial of the Great Victorian who has inspired countless generations of writers (and made most of them inconsequential by comparison) London is hosting all kinds of Dickens events, from Christmas events at the Charles Dickens house at 48 Doughty Street to 'Dickens and London' at the Museum of London.

This week's Time Out [...]

My Gadget Of The Year

My Sky broadband kicks out every now and again, and finding the fault is an agonising process as I'm forced to rise through the hierarchy of Sky's operatives, from the call centre guy in India who asks you if you've tried turning it off and on again to the Scottish lady with the strict checklist [...]

Thinking Out Of The Box Office

I used to know a very nice lady who headed up Warner Bros UK. When she retired I asked her how she felt, and she replied; 'For the first eighteen months I checked the previous day's box office first thing every morning. Then one day I stopped, and it was as if a great weight [...]

Best In Show

I'm voting on British Academy films at the moment and just received this letter, which made me laugh…

Dear BAFTA Member,

We have received a number of enquiries regarding the eligibility of Uggie, the Jack Russell, in the role of 'DOG' for Actor in a Supporting Role in "The Artist".

Regretfully, we must advise that as he is [...]

The Tropical Bathroom I'd Like

Yes, I'm back, just in time to find that my Broadband has collapsed and will take an age to fix, so now I'm having write in my local cafe, but before we leave the tropics behind take a look at this.

I've always thought that then further West you go in the world, the worse design [...]

We Have Beautiful Sea Pairs Forever

Well, that was fun. On the last day of our trip, a rustle in the undergrowth revealed this monitor lizard, about three feet long, foraging beneath our decking.

Later we took a longboat to the Yao Noi islands and saw the memorial on Ko Hong to those lost in the 2004 tsunami, before picking [...]

Exotic Reading

When I travel I tend to read books with a more international flavour – it's hard to immerse yourself in a thriller set in rainswept Berlin when you're in 35 degrees of steam-heat.

This trip I read 'Congo Journey' by Redmond O'Hanlon, who is the Gerald Durrell of the maggots-and-malaria school of travel. This, his [...]

Full Moon High

I'd never seen a lunar eclipse before. In London you're lucky you can see the tops of buildings half the time. In South-East Asia it was a clear starry night, so I was able to watch the whole thing.

The surprising part was the total eclipse effect – not one of darkness, leaving a negative [...]

They Sing! They Dance! They Prepare Sauces!

Tonight I'm in Koh Yao Noi tangled up inside an elaborate mosquito net watching a bizarre hybrid TV series while a storm rages outside. Someone over in Singapore obviously thought this was a good idea; let's take the prickly German rom-com 'Mostly Martha' and mix it with 'Glee' to come up with 'The Kitchen Musical', [...]