Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 432

Putting the Eek In Greek

So I disobeyed my own advice and ate at the restaurant chosen by Tripadvisor as the one voted best restaurant in the Greek islands. It's on a beach and has a bamboo roof. It has a worrying grammatical error in its name. Its main room is dominated by a picture of a man's head sticking [...]

My Advice? Avoid Tripadvisor

How much do you need to know about where you're going? Obviously some ground information is good, but when I started using Tripadvisor, I realised I was entering a world of very nitpicky people. Attempting to destroy the reputation of a hotel because you didn't like the colour of the bathroom is a little loopy. [...]

Wrong Territory

A new wrinkle in the eReader saga – I decided to download the books I wanted to read on holiday while I was away, but you can't; they're protected by territory, even though I'm paying with an English credit card. So you have to make your choices before you travel. This, and the lack of [...]

Missing Obama

I've missed Obama visiting the UK, which is a shame. The US security service made the entire population of Obama's hometown in Ireland go out and come back in again through metal detectors, and the one old lady who refused was apparently kept away from the visit.

They also sent several thousand litres of paint [...]

What I Did On My Hols

Local shop.

Local pet.

Local response to Greek economic collapse (click to enlarge).

Chalk & Cheese Reading

A couple of observations about e-reading. Many of the books I've downloaded have been appallingly rendered through software glitches. I guess this will get better in time, but with so many formats it was bound to happen.

As far as I can see, the Kindle library is not as wide-ranging as ePub, and software like [...]

Stimulating The Mind

Proust: Really Quite Stressed

Before I took a week off, I got stuck halfway through a new novel. It had been a very productive year up to that point, finishing four new books, a videogame, judging the Crime Writers' Awards, writing my regular columns and articles, plus pitching on a wide array of projects, the [...]

House Of Fear

'End Of The Line', a collection of underground-based spooky tales, was one of last year's anthology highlights. This year, 'House Of Fear', also edited by Jonathan Oliver, brings the same sensibility into the home.

It's a strong line-up, with stories from:
Joe Lansdale
Paul Meloy
Adam Nevill
Lisa Tuttle
Tim Lebbon
Sarah Pinborough
Eric Brown
Jonathan Green
Nicholas Royle
Christopher Priest
Nina Allan
Chaz Brenchley
Stephen Volk
Gary Kilworth
Weston [...]

How To Be Taken Seriously

I love the dark English sense of humour, but for a writer it can prove fatal.

Humour writing rarely wins awards, and can act as a deterrent to selling stories or novels. There's a traditional attitude to film and book writing that says you can say or do anything if you say it seriously enough. [...]

Hidden London

Here's something you probably won't have seen before (I had to stand on a cafe table to get the shot). The Crossrail project has meant the demolition of entire city blocks in central London, and it's amazing how quickly one forgets what was there before.

It's not so much the building as where it is; [...]