Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 460

Re:View – 'Agathe Clery'

Okay, from time to time I like to draw your attention to movies you might not have seen, and this one has been, frankly, a bugger to find. There are only three reviews online and none in English.

Why so difficult?

A hit in France and a very funny film from the director of 'Tatie Danielle', it's [...]

In Other Places Too…

People keep asking me about my other social network tags, so just as a reminder, you can find me on Facebook here where you can find photos like this…

And I'm on Twitter under the name Peculiar. Now, there's a surprise…

Ophidiophobes Look Away Now

I'm back, having arrived in a rainstorm after a series of knackering journeys home. On my doorstep lie thirty crime novels, partially soaked. You asked for holiday snaps – here are the only ones where I don't look fed up, stressed or haunted. There are more on my Facebook page.

One is in the Rock Temple [...]

Why Voice Recognition Software Still Doesn't Cut It

An item on BBC Breakfast about breeding pigs, in which a reporter explained to the presenter that pigs "love to nibble anything that comes into the shed, like our wellies", was unfortunately lost in translation after the computer misheard.

Let's wait a few years before investing in that, shall we?

So Long, Susannah

The Travel Bug

I'm sure the English countryside is very nice. I went there once and got thrown out of a field, and I've seen it in films like 'Straw Dogs'. Oh, and I heard Stewart Lee's monologue on friends who moved to the countryside: 'There's so much to do, it's wonderful, you'll love it. Do come. Do [...]

Stories That Put Vacations Into Perspective

'A million hit by island's worst crisis since tsunami' says today's Independent newspaper. 'Sri Lanka is battling to confront widescale monsoon flooding that has affected more than one million people and which the government says is second only to the 2004 tsunami in terms of the devastation it has caused. Around 30,000 troops are struggling [...]

Bryant & May Are Back In Business

My lovely New York editor Kate Miciak has just read the delivered manuscript of the next Bryant & May novel and has told me she thinks it may be the best yet. I'm thrilled, because I work in the dark without feedback (I don't let anyone read drafts), and it means I'm still on the [...]

In Praise Of Hilary Mantel

I brought an awful lot of books away with me (don't say 'Kindle' – most of them aren't out yet; I'm judging) and there were a lot of awful books. Not that I had time to do any reading on this trip. The hotel libraries I checked had books in English, Japanese, French and German [...]

Should Writers Retreat?

The pool remains undisturbed, the guests are non-existent, my clothes are sodden, but there are worst places to be confined due to lousy weather, believe me.

With two days to go (sun and warmth are due just after I start my journey home) I'm treating my time here as work days, and I'm deep into [...]