Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 454

Film News: 'Sex and the City 3′ Announced

'Sex and the City' a film series in which sniggering fashion designers dress middle-aged women up as circus clowns, is to make a threequel.

In other news, a Sunday afternoon TV film about a stutter has won some prizes, a thriller about a Swedish girl with a tattoo has won a prize because Bafta members [...]

Hidden London: St Ethelreda's Hand

If you had a sore throat at the start of February (who didn't?) you could have saved on the Night Nurse and whipped over to St Ethelreda's Church, Ely Place, a tiny cul-de-sac that still has a beadle's lodge. Here, you'll find a fragment of St Ethelreda's hand in the jewelled chest to the right [...]

You'll Hurt Your Eyes!

The photo is from the lovely 'London Street Photography' at the Museum of London. Mothers always said you'd hurt your eyes reading comics. Now I'm starting to think they were right – the captions seem so small to ageing eyes.

As a kid I took all the British comics because everyone else did. Beano, Dandy, [...]

Yet More London Books

The Museum Of London has just launched 'London Street Photography 1860 – 2010′, a collection of astonishing photographs showing the city's overwhelming humanity. Early pictures reveal how crowded with people certain areas were, how wide the roads and low the buildings. By comparison the modern photos feel tricksy and unrepresentative, not in the same spirit [...]

Polari @ South Bank

Next Friday you can combine literary pursuits with an evening of live entertainment at Polari at Southbank Centre, when the iconic arts venue is taken over by the Polari gay literary salon, with DJs and live entertainment in an evening for bookworms who like to let loose once in a while. The event takes place [...]

Putting Bryant & May In Their Place

The Peculiar Crimes Unit site here now has eight filing cabinet drawers full of esoteric bits and bobs on the Peculiar Crimes Unit, writing, mysteries, crime, weird books, maps and – coming soon – artwork.

This means that all things Bryant & May are now in one place, and everything else, including details about several [...]

Re:View – 'Company'

London and New York share a special relationship when it comes to Stephen Sondheim. The two cities may snipe about who's top dog, but Sondheim productions which start here have a habit of ending up there. This is probably because of the way he is re-interpreted by London directors, who feel less inclined to treat [...]

Thin Genius

Behold the above book.

It is the size and weight of a paving stone.

It is also unreadably bad, and all those involved in its publishing should all be shot.

It is not a particularly long book, but being badly written it feels very long indeed.

It has lots of fat white pages to pad it out, and [...]

'Celebrity' – What Happened Next

I wrote the play 'Celebrity' because I thought the time was right. There's an embarrassing national obsession with celebrity. As someone who's worked with a few I can say that you never get to know them, and it's generally not very interesting waiting around for somebody famous to stop being unpleasant. Stars generally divide into [...]

The Mystery Of Writing

As great jobs go, it's right up there with wicker repair and stoat breeding. Tell someone you're a writer and you often get answers of a pitying 'That's nice for you' variety.

I don't talk much about 'Why I Write' mainly because we all do it differently. But a conversational exchange caught my attention recently that [...]