Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 402

Things I Missed (An Ongoing Series, Apparently)

It was the London to Brighton Veteran Car Rally last weekend – here's footage of last year's 60 mile event, the driving equivalent of slow cooking. The thought of watching a series of widely spaced old cars creeping through South London's unattractive roads or waiting for AA vans has never appealed, but always makes [...]

Daily Mail Funnier Than Viz: Official

What's that incredible high-pitched noise? It sounds like someone trying to drown a weasel in a bath. You know, annoying, urgent and yet strangely ineffectual. Oh, it's the Daily Mail, shrieking itself into a state of religious ecstasy over immigration.

Because the Home Secretary lost a few million immigrants recently. Remember when you came back from [...]

Why Do You Have To Like TV?

Yesterday's column touched a nerve – is it snobbish to not watch TV? Only if you make a big deal out of telling people – UK television became the Vox Populi from the 1960s onwards, after the BBC stopped trying to use it as an improvement device, and there are certainly some terrific programmes to [...]

Television? What's That?

A funny conversation over the weekend with a friend who doesn't own a TV and is being bullied by the government to buy a licence. It seems they can't grasp that someone might not own a TV, and are now threatening him to buy a licence or got to court.

While we have a TV, it's [...]

My Hood Goes Good

Ten years ago, hookers and druggies ran the streets of my neighbourhood, and many buildings were derelict. Now King's Cross is in the middle of a £2bn redevelopment plan. The area is centred around Pentonville Road, Gray's Inn Road and Euston Road, overlapping Bloomsbury, Islington and Camden.

Behind the station is a 67-acre former site where [...]

The Holiday Class Divide

The unspoken rules were always thus; the UK middle classes loved summering in Italy, from Capri to 'Chiantishire', and bought their holiday homes in France, seeking out picturesque towns in Bordeaux and Provence, while the working classes headed for Portugal, Turkey and Spain. But are things changing? Talking to friends in Spain this weekend, the [...]

Compo Time!

Okay, first of our competitions is up at the lovely Forbidden Planet site here. This one is for a signed first edition of 'Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood'. The next one, on this site, will be for a special advance signed and doodled copy of 'Hell Train' – watch this space…

I'll be [...]

iPad Magic

Sweet kids' show magic with an iPad. My laptop doesn't do that.

Have Laptop, Will Travel

I'm going to Spain for a party, but it's bucketing down here in grey old London, and a big dinner with some of my oldest friends seems a wise option. Back Sunday night.

Old & New London

This is an occasional new column of bits 'n' bobs I've seen wandering about town with mobile in hand. The title comes from the most extraordinary set of books ever produced on London, which I'll cover soon.

I'm not sure what the goat is doing on the stack of crates in Spittalfields, but it's rather [...]