Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 439

Happy Easter Break

And I thought Easter had been arranged so that people could sit outside Primark in Oxford Street smoking for four days. Living in multicultural London, you tend to forget about the religious importance Easter has for Christians – I seem to have spent the last couple of days wishing more friends a good Passover.

The 2001 [...]

London's Most Unexpected Garden

At the risk of turning this blog, which is primarily meant to be about creativity, into a London travel guide, I should have added this because the mere fact that it survives is a marvel.

I used to go here in my twenties, but the one and a half acre rooftop gardens (the largest in Europe) [...]

Easter Aches

I hate Easter. It's the vacation I never take, and this year it's trebly bad because it heralds an unprecedented getaway from London that encompasses four free holidays, giving many people a whole two weeks off at Spring. Not me, though, as my partner is working, which means I will be too. Plus, as I [...]

Mad Magazine

I was surprised to find the cover of my old graphic novel (sorry, comic) with artist John Bolton online, where it's still being bought and sold. The rather odd choice of romance, adventure and mental illness came about because John wasn't keen on drawing lots of complicated backgrounds, so I came up with a kind [...]

Goodbye Cowbells, Hello Nothing.

Look at old photos of Leicester Square and you'll see a graceful tree-lined space with greenery-covered theatres around it. Go there now and you'll walk ankle-deep in pizza boxes through mimes, tourists and pickpockets standing around waiting for something to happen. It's like Night Of The Living Dead with more mobile phones.

The Swiss Centre was [...]

London 1955

With recent talk about the Euston Portico being put back after British Rail knocked it down to replace it with a glass box, it's worth looking at the original, although it would be nice to find a photograph in which it wasn't covered in WW2 soot. While nowhere near as attractive as the St Pancras [...]

Television's Argument For Eugenics

Laughing at working class people has always been popular on British television, but 'The Only Way Is Essex' takes it to a new level, making 'Jersey Shore' look like 'Don Giovanni'. Of course, these rubber-breasted robots and their knuckledragging mates don't think they're working class – they've got the vulgarity of the middle classes, so [...]

Midlife In Crisis?

According to Newsweek, there's a new suffering demographic. Their poll indicates that the massive rise in unemployment among middle-aged, college-educated males has brought depression and plunging self-esteem to nearly 70% of US males between 41-59.

The kneejerk reaction is not one of sympathy, although our fathers were usually able to continue work until retirement, and ageism [...]

Re:View – 'Julia's Eyes'

*No Spoilers*

There's not much screaming or yelling in the Fowler household; it's a pretty calm oasis. But last night there was a fair bit of yelling along the lines of 'Aaaargh! Noooo!' and peeking through the fingers during a screening of Guillermo del Toro's latest exec production, made by several of the people responsible for [...]

Writer's Blank

It's the opposite of Writer's Block – I seem to have written a story and don't remember ever writing it!

Google Alerts sent me notification that there's a story of mine called 'Fast Awake' on a Japanese website. I went to it and sure enough, it has my paws all over it, it's just – I [...]