Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 507

And It Turns Out They're All Dead

We've talked about how books, films and TV series often sell hooks without hope of providing a proper payoff – 'Lost' provided one of the lamest examples in years – but many stories are let down by their climaxes. Authors often rush the final chapters of books when they should be slowing down the pace. [...:]

More Gothic Gloom

…from my artist pal Graham Humphries, This time it's the Russell-Cotes museum in Bournemouth. Fantastic
interiors in an incredible mix of styles influenced by extensive world travels, he tells me, but there's no photography allowed, so here's the exterior instead. Not the sort of building I associate with that seaside town. Thanks, Graham.
As always, click on [...:]

Soho Infamy

I remember the self-styled dandy Sebastian Horsley attending one of my readings in Soho and being flattered that he was there, even though I suspected he'd tipped up for the free booze. In the Guardian today Horsley is interviewed, bemoaning the fact that his sole income comes from renting out a room in his flat [...:]

More Signs

It's a bad place to be if you're an airlurophobe; the Greek islands are overrun with cats. They're beautiful and rather small, but covered in flea-bites. So it shouldn't have been too surprising to find this sign (rather blurry I'm afraid – the light was going). It shows a man getting rid of puppies in [...:]

Re: View – 'Stuck'

Stuart Gordon has been off-form for a long while now, so his B-move 'Stuck' comes as a pleasant, if gruesome, surprise. Based on a bizarre true story I recall reading a few years back, it concerns a kindly carer (Mena Suvari) who cuts loose one Friday evening after work, and drives home the worse for [...:]

Sorry Is The Easiest Word

Every time I read another article telling me that Londoners are becoming ruder, I remember the disease suffered by nearly everyone living here: Apologitis. On crowded tubes and buses, squeezing through railway terminals or down escalators, we can't wait to say sorry. We do it when served food – 'sorry, but there seems to be [...:]

Sign Language

The massive Crossrail development at Tottenham Court Road has had one good effect; it's got rid of the people who hold 'Golf Sale' placards. What desperate circumstances would drive you to stand all day on a street corner holding a poster on a stick that nobody wants to read? In the list of pointless dignity-defying [...:]

Grecian Ruins

Ah, Greece, the land that building regulations forgot. Want to whack up a Russian casino made of metal sheets and neon on a site of natural beauty? No problem! Why not simply leave most of the buildings unfinished? I snapped this yesterday, a pair of front doors behind a window eight feet up a wall. [...:]

Deadlier Than The Mail

I'm chilling before heading off to a salt lake to see if there are still any migrating flamingos hanging about, and the most depressing reminder of Middle England I see before I leave is the Daily Mail lurking on my hotel breakfast table. 'The Paper That Seeks To Blame' is currently pointing its finger and [...:]

Stiegs & Stones

It's sitting there in my luggage, 'The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest', all 743 pages of it. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two, but the third – well, it's a big time commitment. And today, a wander around my hotel reveals no less than seven Stieg Larssons (mostly the first volume) on sunbeds, so [...:]