Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 61

‘Evening All!’

Our image of the police is now informed by riot footage as much as anything else. The humble copper has been through a lot of changes in my life so far. The earliest one I can remember is the TV show ‘Dixon of Dock Green’, which began in 1955 and ran in the UK for […]

And Here’s What I Ate Last Night

This is the first photograph of a woman ever taken, certainly that has survived, and dates from 1840. Photography has now vanished due to its ubiquity, paradoxically  rendered obsolete by being unfettered. Like most people of my age I have a couple of shoeboxes with old photos that now belong to a different era, and […]

That Dictionary Exploded

Two entries ago I posted a photo of my 1783 dictionary (now sadly falling to bits through over-thumbage) and you asked me to expand the page-view for a better nose-around. At least I think you did before jumping off into a heated discussion about Arabic jinns, Hodnidods & Pegotty Wing-Wings on the same comments page (I […]

The Secret Life Of Books

It’s like having a sports car that no-one else is allowed to drive. I’m probably hurting my eyes, I thought, reading under the bedcovers with the worst torch my father, who had always been a cheap shopper, had ever bought. Having ploughed through every book in the house (not as hard as it sounds) I […]

Well Defined

I found this old book at the back of a cupboard. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t pick it up in 1787, which is the date inside the cover. It’s an English dictionary published by Northfleet, but like all books of the period it’s scant on publishing information inside. This is where I get all […]

The Hiding Of London

Buildings which were once open have now shuttered. Much of London has traditionally been hidden from view, but the city’s increasingly open-door policies have not made much more available for visitors see. There are a vast number of buildings to which no access is permitted, and sections remain under secure supervision thanks to the threat […]

It’s Publication Day! (Again)

ARTHUR BRYANT: ‘I once considered having a tattoo on my right bicep but I couldn’t make up my mind between Sir Robert Peel or Diana Dors.’ There are two required traits for any career writer, originality and consistency (and patience. THREE things, originality, consistency, patience and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope  – FOUR […]

Have Horror Films Turned Into A Different Genre?

Something quite extraordinary has happened to the humble horror film. After a century of vampires, werewolves, serial killers and zombies it seems to have finally grown up. Horror had always been planted with the seeds of its own destruction. It felt like a cultural dead end, any nascent intelligence trampled flat by the need to […]

Rotten To The Core

Peter Barnes is a writer who’s still misunderstood by critics seeking easy tags. His work was elaborately constructed, intellectually rigorous and controversial, his language exact and demanding. But it must also have been a bugger to memorize. Barnes was born in Bow in 1931, but his parents soon moved to a geriatric coastal town to […]

The Death And Life Of A London Institution

In the 1960s new British writing flourished, especially in the theatre. Rising labour costs eventually forced up seat prices, which meant that theatre chains now need certain houses to stage sure-fire hits that will pay for new plays. As a consequence, great theatrical authors are now more in danger of being lost than most novelists. Plays […]