Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 500

Re:View – Inception

No Spoilers

In 1984, Dennis Quaid starred in a shonky FX thriller about a man who could enter other people's dreams called, appropriately, Dreamscape. It featured a fight with a giant snake-man on (I think) a train, and had a plot like Swiss cheese. Now comes a reboot of that idea with the full bells and [...:]

I Am Vladimir Nabokov

Actually, I'm also James Joyce and David Foster Wallace, whoever he is.

Yes, I succumbed to the 'I Write Like' website that analyses your prose and tell you who you're like in prose style. I Write Like, designed by software developers Coding Robots, lets you paste in a section of your prose and analyses your vocabulary, [...:]

Books For The Slow

I'm an embarrassingly slow reader. I don't quite move my lips, but it's that slow. And the more I enjoy a book, the slower it gets. Lately, though, I'm experiencing a new phenomenon – I'm reading in smaller and small chunks. Now an increasing number of experts think endlessly skimming short texts on the internet [...:]

Things Women Are Banned From Doing

Well, yesterday the Vatican today finally ruled out the ordination of women by making it one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism. But as usual, poor old Pope Dracula has focussed on the wrong target. Of course, women should [...:]

Bloody Mary Gets Knocked On The Head

London Underground has been sensitive about putting alarming images on its stations for years for a variety of reasons, including the public's unfamiliarity with the underground, claustrophobia, terrorism and concerns about women or children travelling alone. The new poster for the London Dungeon, showing a digital moving image of Mary, Queen Of Scots morphing into [...:]

Inspector Sands

It happened again today. I was on the Piccadilly Line at King's Cross station, deep in the underground, when a looped message came on the tannoy, 'Would Inspector Sands please report to the central ticket hall.'

A chill went down my spine and I began to walk faster. 'Inspector Sands' is a code phrase used [...:]

Re:View – The Duchess Of Malfi

Shelley Von Strunckel, astrologer and lifestyle guru, is as mystified as I am, but ever the trooper she's packed sandwiches and champagne just in case we get lost.

We're heading out of our comfort zone to a vacant site at Great Eastern Quay in London's Royal Albert Basin, Gallions Reach, at the end of the [...:]

The Station That Doesn't Exist

This is a gem of a puzzler. A London Underground tube station that is not a closed ghost station, but rather a 'doesn't exist at all' station, West Ashfield is used most days and serves an essential purpose, but in fact lies in West Kensington, halfway up an office block.

Its purpose? To train staff [...:]

When Imitation Really Is Flattery

I'm delighted that the excellent book review blog The Rap Sheet has examined in a little more detail my Bryant & May homage to the inimitable Edmund Crispin. Here's what they wrote;

It's been said that there are just seven plots for mystery novels. That might or might not be true, but certainly reviewers often [...:]

What To Tell A Kid About Horror

A friend of mine said she would never let her child read horror stories of any kind. I wrote this in a response, to answer a few basic questions.

What is a horror story?
It's a story that gives you a strong feeling – it can frighten or sadden or shock you, or make you feel excited. [...:]