Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 506

My Highland Fling

I packed a scarf. I packed a jumper. What I needed in Scotland, it turned out, was shorts and swimming trunks. It was baking in the kind of glaring midsummer heat you'd associate with Ibiza. The opening night premiere of the world's oldest film festival in Edinburgh was a sensational success for the organisers, partly [...:]

I'm Now An App!

Well, me and a lot of other authors. The app takes you here… where you'll be able to download short stories for your journey. Ether are running six of my best, starting with the award-winning 'Cupped Hands'. I'm already using the app myself, and even though I'm not exactly an impartial user I have [...:]

Illusions In Scotland

I'm off to Scotland, first to the opening of this year's Edinburgh Film Festival, where the premiere movie is Silvain Chomet's 'The Illusionist', an elegant homage to Jacques Tati from the guy who brought us the wonderful 'Triplets Of Belleville'. Then I'm heading for Glasgow to give a talk about writing. In the meantime, here's [...:]

Avatar – The Legacy

Come on, how much do you hate the word Legacy? 'Avatar', described by the Guardian as 'the world's first attempt to fuse the aesthetic of Starship Troopers with the ambience of mid-period Enya', had more than 125 licensed products incorporating toys, clothing, books and video games which earned over an additional 100 million quid. But, [...:]

Great Tromp L'oeils

My mate Jan sends me some great trompe l'oeil walls from the US. American artists have proven exceptionally clever at producing realistic art, and these are some of the best I've seen. I wonder why we don't do them in England? We certainly have enough big blank walls. Click on them to see more – [...:]

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Turn Weird

In unsettled times, it seems we are always told to turn to something safe and nostalgic, and so it is with stories and their makers. So Robin Hood, Alice In Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Jane Austen, Batman and even Dracula make comebacks. I'm surprised we haven't had Winnie The Pooh or Tom Sawyer dumped in [...:]

Under Surveillance

This summer, watching seems to be a popular theme in the arts. There's the Exposure exhibition at Tate Modern, about watching and being watched, and now comes a piece of pop-up theatre/dance in the form of the Electric Hotel, a uniquely designed outdoor spectacle, a fly-by-night hotel brought vividly to life through dance and sound [...:]

Re:View – 'Stardust'

Still catching up with movies and books sent to me ages ago, I finally saw this all the way through. I wanted to love it; the combination of Neil Gaiman and a host of British stars, an original fairy tale – but something is very wrong with the film. The direction is sluggish and allows [...:]

While I Was Away

I was only gone for a few days, but London has seemingly revolved a little once again, revealing a new section of itself and taking a few things away. It's a standing joke that you go on holiday and return to find your favourite restaurant gone, but I've come back to find that summer appeared [...:]

Who Will Source The News?

The Mirror Group has announced that it's cutting 25% of staff, while the Guardian is posting record losses. Our newspapers, once the pride of the nation, are suffering a slow death. Much of the local press in London has already disappeared, and magazines are in dire financial straits. Everyone cites the internet as the cause [...:]