Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 53

The Last Brexit Post (Thank God)

‘Brexit Uncertainty’ is the buzz-phrase of the new decade There’ll be no Brexit posts on the site after today because it’s too divisive a subject and it’s not my job to judge how people choose to protest. Yesterday the knock-on effect of the UK’s decision to dump its largest trading partner showed itself when I […]

He Was No Saint

Everyone of a certain age can remember the theme music to ‘The Saint’. The creator of the quintessentially English stiff-upper-lipped hero was Leslie Charteris, born in Singapore in 1907. His experiences working on a rubber plantation, in a tin mine, as a gold prospector, fairground carnie, bus driver, pearl fisher, bartender and professional bridge player […]

The Morning After

How do you commemorate the final result when you’re on the losing team? If the whole of London voted to remain in Europe (including, famously and on multiple occasions, Boris de Pfeffel Johnson) it was partly because we were the ones who travelled to and from Europe on a weekly basis, who worked alongside Europeans, […]

Upon Brexit Day

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks […]

The Year’s Most Interestingly Strange Films

However you slice it, this was the year that movies hit a fork in the road; Big budget (tentpole or fan-service or whatever you want to call them) films no longer worked, franchises and sequels lost their grip on audiences and genuinely original one-offs started popping up, often facilitated by Netflix funding. Some made money, […]

Inside Writing 2: Why You Need To Know What You’ve Written

The steps between thoughts must be cut shallow. I was once in California and made the mistake of walking across a part of the beach surfers considered to be theirs. They threw rocks at me until I retreated cut and bruised. I had never really encountered aggressively stupid people before and it came as a […]

Inside Writing 1: The Things That Did Not Happen

This is the first of a new series that I hope will explore the actual experience of writing, from the first word to publication. So, What Do You Do Apart From Just Writing Books? I love that question. I get asked it a lot. Some people are surprised that what they consider a hobby can […]

War Of The Worlds In The Narrator’s Own Words

Looking at my research notes on ‘War Of The Worlds’ I found that if you take the key dialogue lines from the narrator in H G Wells’ story you get an interesting synopsis of the main events – what comes through is the extraordinary clarity of the storytelling. Phillip Pullman’s excellent book of essays on […]

What Happened To War Of The Worlds?

War of the worlds When it comes to science fictionmy first question is always; Why aren’t there filmed TV versions of books by Ray Bradbury, Christopher Priest, Arthur C Clarke and at least twenty other superb SF authors? Why are the only books that get made ‘brands’? Videogames offer a further problem. The player decides […]

Gomorrah Never Dies

…But just about everyone in it does. You probably already know the backstory to ‘Gomorrah’, thefictional TV adaptation of Roberto Saviano’s 2006 real-life exposé of the Camorra, the Neapolitan crime syndicate, and how the writer has to live with bodyguards these days. It was turned into a hit gangster series and became the first Italian […]