Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 92

Movie Locations No.1: The Possession Of Joel Delaney

  LOCATION: New York City FILM: ‘The Possession Of Joel Delaney’ This is a new occasional column dedicated to films that bring places to life. In the CV of the actress Shirley MacLaine are a few surprises. One of them is a supernatural story that has grown in stature and power over the passing years. […]

Dead End Movies No.1: The Possession Of Joel Delaney

This is a new occasional column dedicated to unusual films. In the CV of the actress Shirley MacLaine are a few surprises. One of them is a supernatural story that has grown in stature and power over the passing years. The past is another country; to modern eyes downtown seventies New York now looks as […]

The Final Remembrance

With Remembrance Sunday approaching, the Tower of London has chosen to stage another respectful, spectacular display commemorating the fallen of WWI. Its astonishing installation of handmade poppies, forming a sea of scarlet around the Bloody Tower was named ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’, a public art installation created in the moat between July and […]

Thinking Slightly Too Hard About A Disney Classic

  Writers don’t sit down to enjoy films in quite the same way as civilians. We get distracted by mis-en-scene, subtext, plot holes and red herrings. We watch out for foreshadowing, signalling and dialogue that’s too on-the-nose. As a result, we tend to prefer ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ over ‘The Lion King’ because the former […]

A Model For British Bookshops

The Mysterious Bookshop, now on Warren Street in New York, has been going since 1979 and is run by the avuncular Otto Penzler. This makes it the oldest mystery specialist book store in America. It’s a treasure trove of mysteries old and new – a niche market that’s run buy experts in the field, and isn’t […]

There’s More Than One Way To Read A Book

Back in 2009 I interviewed my editor at Penguin Random House on the confusing subject of book sizes and shapes. Simon Taylor told me: ‘In the UK, the large size is generally referred to as B format. Trade paperbacks tend to be larger still – Royal octavo or Demy formats. But in the US they […]

Sharp Tongued English

Sir John Gielgud made so many horrendous gaffes that there’s a book about them called ‘Gielgoodies’ – the Shakespearian actor was forever insulting friends by mistake. He was blunt and thoughtless, but it must have been difficult to take offence when he’d say, ‘I don’t think Pemberton’s a good designer. You want someone who will […]

Finding A Way Through Fake News

Fake news. Massaged press releases. Omissions of fact. Inaccuracies. Hidden agendas. Prejudice. And in Trump’s case, outright, instantly disprovable lies. How do you negotiate your way through this minefield to get to what’s actually happening? There was an old tabloid trick that still stands today; print the lie, retract it tomorrow – because nobody reads […]

Stealing From Libraries

Have you ever stolen a book from a library? Is there any circumstance where this is acceptable? We’ll get to that in a moment. First, some background. Libraries figured hugely in my childhood and teenage years, but I don’t suppose they feel as necessary in young lives now, certainly not in time-poor London. Taking two […]

What The Forgotten Authors Did Next

When ‘The Book of Forgotten Authors’ was heading to paperback, the editor and I realised that some changes would have to be made from the hardback; a year would have passed, and some of the authors were starting to get republished. Occasionally this was a direct consequence of the new attention the author was receiving, […]