Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 431

Digital Dazzle

Well, I seem to have sparked off something here about the digital reading revolution, and some very good points are being made. But, as I pointed out in reply to Mike Cane, the current wave of eReaders are little more than a stop-gap on the way to full media digitisation. Here's a glimpse of the [...]

Missing The Digital Boat

Sorry, this is a bit longer than I intended, but do read on. Before we start, I'm the world's biggest fan of bookshops, but this subject needs more airing.

An interesting little article turns up in 'Red Herrings', the crime writers' journal, about the innate snobbery in e-publishing. The author only publishes online, and argues that [...]

Breaking The Readership Barrier

I have a feeling I need to pull the stops out for the next Bryant & May here in the UK. In the US the series does better and better, but here we lag far behind. This isn't helped by the fact that WH Smith, the ubiquitous railway station-souk, thinks they're a mite too clever [...]

How To Become Invisible

I get a bit depressed when I'm writing my forgotten authors column in the Independent On Sunday – the weekly column is now called 'Invisible Ink' , which allows me more scope to cover authors who are still alive – I don't want to offend them by calling them 'forgotten' (as I managed to with [...]

Ladies & Gentlemen

The sequel to 'Boys & Girls', 'Men & Women' is a collection of new short stories and essays which contains an uncollected piece by me entitled 'Ladies & Gentlemen'. Glasshouse Books is publishing the new anthology on 14 July 2011. Edited by Time Out's Paul Burston, Men & Women features the best in new and [...]

Beach Culture Shock

From this...

...to this.

From one beach to another, I'm full of cold and back from Greece, which is experiencing climate change in the form of abnormally turbulent weather, and heading to Cornwall for next weekend.

I haven't been there since 'Straw Dogs' put me off, but now I believe it's all Rick Stein restaurants and [...]

Superhero Worship

Edgar Wright says about "Hellboy 2″ 'I really liked. I've never read the comics, so I watch "Hellboy" as a Guillermo del Toro fan. He really creates his own universe, and it's just beautiful. On a production design level it's just absolutely staggering.'

Until I saw it again recently, I'd forgotten that it contained monsters from [...]

Dad's Army Rides Again

Rather nice coverage of Bury's East Lancashire Railway enthusiasts' train weekend in the Guardian here.If you're going to do nostalgia, you might as well get it right, as these lovely people have done.

Piracy Of The Page

Maybe I should be flattered that the Bryant & May series is successful enough to qualify.

With grim inevitability, the electronic pirates have hit my books with a massive number of illegal download sites. And because I've had occasion to look up Bryant & May material online (I can't remember everything off the top of [...]

Greek Style

The thunderstorms are due to end on the morning I leave Greece, and thereafter it's glorious sunshine through the season. Coincidentally, this is the same day that the hotels switch from 'Low Season' rates to 'High Season', so presumably they have a deal with the local meteorological office.

I like Greek styling. It seems to combine [...]