Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 401

What Old Shows Turned Into

I've just delivered the sequel to 'Paperboy' and hope my lovely publisher will like it enough to take it on. At the start of the book I set up the seventies period and mention a few differences between old British TV shows and new ones.

This was a bit of a cheat as I haven't [...]

How Horrible People Pass The Time

I don't usually cover celebrity rubbish, but this one's a gem. Take a look at this lot; they're the people students should really be complaining about.

I think my brother's wedding cost about £600. It was lovely, and everyone there was full of joy. By contrast, Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One Chief Executive, managed to [...]

Tweeting The War

This is a brilliant way of bringing a sense of immediacy to warfare – it's the Second World War, tweeted as if it was happening in real time.

Yet More London Books!

I can't imagine how the Kindle will ever cope with books like these. iPad apps are already providing interactive cookbooks, but London guidebooks are collectable and designed for ease of use when walking about. Here are three new volumes about the city.

London's Hidden Secrets by Graeme Chesters has a page designated for each find – [...]

Going To 'The Countryside'

This post is for city dwellers only. You're not allowed to read it if you live within 5 miles of a cow.
Okay, urbanites…you know the countryside? It's where the dirt lives. Think hard, you must know. No Apple stores. No parks. Weird phone reception. The local town has an Indian Restaurant called the Maharajah Curry [...]

Shouldn't He Get The Bond Title Number?

I thought I'd posted this before but I can't find it on the site. Well, the new Bond film has a title – 'Skyfall', which doesn't sound remotely Fleming-like – so I thought we should have the rather wonderful David McAlmont singing 'Diamonds Are Forever' with Bond composer David Arnold, who has a nice line [...]

Re:View – 'Cold Fish'

One of the darkest Japanese thrillers for a long time, this is another of director Sion Sono's high-volume melodramas that offers an incredibly cynical and misanthropic view of humanity. Shamoto, the timid owner of a small tropical fish shop, has a bored second wife and a daughter who hates her. This is revealed in a [...]

Looking Up In London

Many years ago, when I wrote a thriller called 'Roofworld', one of the side effects of that novel was to create an army of readers who sent me shots of things they'd seen looking up at the tops of neglected buildings. Recently, I stumbled across the work of Paul M, a young Australian photographer who [...]

Pop-Up Kosher!

This is a London first – a kosher Sunday roast pop up restaurant is appearing at The Shop in Kensal Rise. Kosher shops and butchers will provide all the ingredients for the feasts (the first takes place on 4 December, the second on the 11th), and Rabbi Moshe Dadoun from the Porat Yousef Synagogue will [...]

Where Did All The Black & White Films Go?

Remember those things? Stopped around 1960, always had Sid James in them, filled up the TV schedules all day, now gone. It was only when I searched for a black and white film on the EPG that I realised they had vanished completely, but the French film 'The Artist' reminded me of what we had [...]