Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 93

Halloween Special: Haunting Images

Hallowe’en has reached a point where Americans might celebrate their holiday by dressing as Post Malone. Clearly we’ve come a long way from bedsheet ghosts and the Legend of Sleep Hollow. Films are now our main source of disturbing images, although the ‘clown in a drain’ thing doesn’t work in the UK, which doesn’t have […]

A Roomful Of Strangers

In an age of MeToo, proactive diversity and gender blindness (all of which I am heartily in favour) I did start to wonder where all the weird old white men had gone. Now I know. The Pulp and Paperback Book Fair in Bloomsbury brings them out in droves. These are a special breed of hunters, […]

Halloween Special: In Praise Of The Grotesque

The trickster who appears, causes havoc and vanishes is an ancient myth in most cultures. The idea of a stranger sweeping in and unsettling the locals is especially connected to America’s geography. Unconnected towns joined by single highways made perfect targets when travelling salesmen, circuses and preachers came to visit. Tricksters got in and got […]

Days & Nights In London

The jump back into London’s life after summer is akin to slamming from one dimension to another. October is crammed with events, some free, some cheap, many outrageously expensive. We’ve had Super Thursday, the day when more books are published than on any other, and the knock-on effect is hundreds of literary events in every […]

Brexit: Heading For The Life-Rafts

As the SS Great Britain heads Titanic-like for the iceberg of a No-Deal Brexit, everyone wants answers as to how we got into this mess. We all know the short answer; David Cameron traded a referendum for favours, and although he told CNN he believes Britain has “taken the wrong course” in opting to leave […]

Halloween Horror Choice

So what did we decide to view for Halloween? (And are we dropping the apostrophe now?) HP Lovecraft adaptations, good call. There are a couple of terrific HP Lovecraft films I’ve mentioned here before called ‘The Valdemar Inheritance’ and ‘The Valdemar Legacy’. As an added bonus they have Edgar Allen Poe and Conan Doyle in. […]

Hallowe’en Horror Is Going To Be A Problem This Year

In these newly extreme times, the one area in which extremism hasn’t triumphed is in the arts. As we approach Hallowe’en I wonder how long it will be before the spectre of horror censorship rises again, and art that shocks is banned. If any serious film dares to address, on any level, the problems of […]

You Don’t Have To Get Fat Working At Home

Working at home means never being far from the fridge, in London at least; it’s perilously close to my desk. After living in France I went to Barcelona primarily to work, because the days are so ridiculously long that I can average about four hours more a day. Everything starts late; to cope with the […]

What Happened Next?

I often write about ideas that occur because I’m thinking about current events, but I don’t follow up with what happened next. Here’s a quick round-up of what DID happen next after certain recent articles.. 1. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I was still at work on a historical epic called ‘The Foot […]

‘Don’t Try Anything Funny’

‘Having a pronounced sense of humour is not a job qualification,’ a teacher once told me. I could have replied that having a low droning voice like a distant lawnmower was not a teacher’s job qualification, but I fear that would have proved his point.   Problem is, my desire for high learning is tempered […]