Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 468

So Much For Democracy

So, the US has opened up a dramatic new front against WikiLeaks, killing its web address just days after Amazon pulled the site from its servers following political pressure.

Censorship has had a long and fascinating history, from the Ministry of Information in WW2 hiding the truth about the war to the social panics created [...]

Celebrity 21: The Last Night

I admit it had seemed like another of my dumb ideas. Write a show for something to do between books, maybe pop it on somewhere.
Instead, we found ourselves creating a West End fringe show that had a sell-out run and now has a legit transfer.

Even if we'd got no further we'd have had a lot [...]

This Green & Pleasant Land

The photo says it all. Britain has turned into something you'd find at the back of your freezer. Apparently the Gulf Stream, one of the seven great undersea motors than power the world's oceans and coincidentally keeps Britain warm, is stopping thanks to the global warming people say isn't happening.

Meanwhile, no planes. No trains. No [...]

Kent, November 2010

My niece Charlie took this outside her house. Two weeks ago we were wandering around in shorts. As someone who thinks the countryside starts North of Tottenham Court Road, the thought of four months of this is enough to make me think about moving abroad again.

Wanna Play London?

At first I thought this was a brilliant idea. You log your Oyster card and other electronic points, and Chromaroma loads your travels into tasty graphics. It's an online multi-player game that aims to change the behaviour of tube users by awarding players points for every station visited. You can earn bonus points for visiting [...]

Celebrity 20: Art Imitates Death

When I wrote 'Celebrity' I knew it would be topical. I thought the script was a little over the top, but I didn't realise that real life would get even weirder on the subject. Hollwood press agent Ronni Chasen was gunned down in LA, and now a 'person of interest' to the case, in the [...]

Better TV VS Failing Eyesight

I recently bought a new TV. It has a screen suitable for drive-in movies. It's as thin as a credit card. It's HD and 3D. You can see the hairs on a mosquito's legs. You can see inside Susan Boyle's nostrils. But of course if you watch reruns of 'Dad's Army', it looks like you're [...]

'Paperboy' Wins The Green Carnation Award 2010

Well, this has genuinely taken me by surprise! I read all the other contenders in the shortlist, 'God Says No' by James Hannaham, 'Man's World' by Rupert Smith, 'London Triptych' by Jonathan Kemp and 'Children of the Sun' by Max Schaefer, and thought they were all terrific books in their choice of subject matter and [...]

Fancy A Friday Fantasy?

If you're a budding writer interested in horror, SF, fantasy or genre fiction in general, now's your chance to meet authors and publishers in a friendly, attitude-free atmosphere. The British Fantasy Society regularly hold open nights where newcomers are welcome, and tomorrow night sees a new venue for the BFS at Truckles, Off Bury Place, [...]

Liberals Smarter Than Conservatives: Official

Here's a story to upset everyone at the Fox network or the Daily Mail. It seems there's now scientific proof that liberals are more intelligent than conservatives. A study by Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, published in Social Science Quarterly in March, showed that young adults who identified themselves as "very liberal" had an average IQ of [...]