Uncut : 21 Short Stories

by Christopher Fowler

Welcome to Christopher Fowler's world. A place where people get killed in the most surprising ways. By a cocktail cabinet falling out of the sky. By a box of free-range eggs in a supermarket. By a basket of laundry, by an airline ticket, by the buildings themselves. It's a world where bizarre horrors and black comedy cheerfully co-exist. Where the innocent suffer, the guilty go unpunished, and 'the only way you can be safe is by staying very, very still'. Twenty-one stories, including personal favourites and brand-new tales, uncut, unexpected and sometimes quite unsanitary, from a world teetering on the edge of madness. 'Style novelist of the year' SUNDAY TIMES

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Christopher Fowler was an English writer known for his Bryant & May mystery series, featuring two Golden Age-style detectives navigating modern London. Over his career, he authored fifty novels and short story collections, along with screenplays, video games, graphic novels, and audio plays. His psychological thriller Little Boy Found was published under the pseudonym L.K. Fox.
Fowler's accolades include multiple British Fantasy Awards, the Last Laugh Award, the CWA Dagger in the Library, and the inaugural Green Carnation Award. He was inducted into the Detection Club in 2021. Beyond crime fiction, his works ranged from horror (Hell Train, Nyctophobia) to memoir (Paperboy, Film Freak). His column Invisible Ink explored forgotten authors, later compiled into The Book of Forgotten Authors.
Fowler lived between London and Barcelona with his husband, Peter Chapman.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twenty one stories by Christopher Fowler which have appeared previously but not necessarily previously in one of his story collections. On the cover there is a quote from Time Out (when it was still, just, A London listings magazine rather than whatever bullshit it is today):

"Fowler takes on Stephen King and comes away with the prize between his teeth"

Which although containing truth is also, now and even at the time of publication in 1999, wildly misleading because although King has made forays into non horror stories, most famously with 'Stand by Me' and 'Apt Pupil', his genre is horror. Fowler on the other hand even in his great novels of horror/supernatural like 'Spanky' always had more of a footing in reality particularly in his stories. For Fowler horror is most likely to be found not in demons of the supernatural but all to human ones, such as in the story 'In Persia' which comes with the subtitle 'The most beautiful place on erth holds a most shocking secret' or 'Thirteen Places of Interest in Kentish Town' which is one of those stories of disparate and apparently unrelated elements that only come together at the end and are all the more horrible for their mundanity.

There is horror and the supernatural 'The Unreliable History of Plaster City' and 'Jouissance de la Mort' could be Stephen King stories except they aren't long enough, Fowler is always concise compared to King - can you imagine King getting 21 tales into 400 pages? I think not - and no King story would have a title all in French, not that the average person in the UK is any more likely then an American to know what it means, it just won't frighten them as much and certainly won't stop them reading the story.

The most important difference between Fowler and King is that Fowler is English and although he can write convincingly outside of his English culture and background it is where he is at his best. In novels like 'Spanky' or his Bryant and May ones it is their Englishness that is most important.

This is particularly true of the finest stories in this collection like 'Norman Wisdom and the Angel of Death'. Just reading about who Norman Wisdom is can't provide you with the understanding of what is so horrific in the story. It is like turning Captain Kangaroo, Andie Griffith, or Mr. Rogers into weapons of mass destruction (possibly those references will mean nothing, even to Americans. The important thing to grasp is that they, like Norman Wisdom, come from a lost golden age of innocence before Bozo the clown and John Wayne Gacey became indistinguishable). The very specificity of the horror in 'Norman Wisdom and the Angel of Death' is untranslatable because the meanings, no the resonances, of the things he mentions barely make sense to younger English readers.

But he is a very good writer, perhaps not a great writer, but it is no crime to fail to be a genius.

[Tama · Rating 1 out of 5]

The introductory where Fowler is at a literary festival devoid of punters is much more endearing than the opening piece, ‘The Human Element,’ which dips into at once tame and far fetched abuses of ignorant travel, and in big cities. I wished ‘Uncut’ were a memoir travelogue or something.

‘Human Element.’ Short stories. They’re a hard sell collected. And with this many (21) you can’t help but suspect this is a published hobby, where the author forces ideas to come out to hit a story a week goal. While it isn’t totally pointless or uninteresting the first story isn’t scary, isn’t too amusing, nor is it believable, particularly this surreal conversation with a homeless person, or decadent New York coming in the form of a vengeful wife hurtling him drunken ahead of police in a nice car. If one of the encounters the protagonist falls into went somewhere deeper than petty disgrace!

‘In Persia.’ It happened again. This drawn out scenario to a twist ending that doesn’t really connect with the pages before, it is simply an underwhelming change of scenario.

‘On Edge.’ It’s too much work to read through twisty shorts with little substance. Deranged and quirky characters aren’t enough. There’s no politics. And the drama is incidental. While around ten pages is not as unfair as a story more than twice the length hanging you on until the sole point is revealed as being the end… Give me more of a case file on this freaky dentist instead.

‘The Master Builder.’ I only read the end of this one. The aesthetic, and length didn’t appeal to me. Maybe if I was a producer looking for horror material to adapt. Who knows. There could be some decent suspense here. But the important relationships are obvious over little more than a page. Paranoia, a little psychosexual.

‘Perfect Casting.’ It’s something that happens from time to time. I can only imagine how terrible a working actor would feel reading this and the ending. The most predictable of twists when you get into this short story horror mindset. I read this one as mostly dialogue except for the end. Most of the expository prose is useless. There are handshakes and meetings instead of cutting to a scenario. Include the names and barely crucial information for dialogue. Keep it bare like a script. May as well. It doesn’t need to be as economic as a film. Every word should count! Or you could make it funny.

‘Chang-Siu.’ Fowler is a bonafide bullshitter.

‘Unreliable History of Plaster City.’ These are Tarantino imitations. Tarantino would make the opening amusing if he could give it more of a point.

‘Night After Night of the Living Dead.’ The first one to catch my interest on its contents. It is for the film reference. I got a laugh or two. Far from the movie, but I’ll give it spooky. Almost endearing.

‘Jumbo Portions.’ Brings in some sick humour. “Tony had fallen head first, and as he fell had raised his knees so that he entered the fat in a crouched position.” There could’ve been something less obvious for the ending. I was expecting them to steal the bag from outside. But getting it in their bag is too obvious, and there’s nothing deeper than a scream for the character’s reaction. I liked the bulk of this story. After ‘The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover’ this took on a particular crispy aesthetic.

‘Two Murderers.’ The one good scene in the depressed woman’s car.

What a load of rubbish.

Need editing. These things are uncut. Either re format into screenplay and fix the dialogue. And certainly cutting 90% of the description.

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd encountered Christopher Fowler's short stories in various anthologies over the years - I think Stephen Jones is a fan - as well as reading two of his novels, SPANKY and SOHO BLACK. UNCUT beckoned to me as a master collection of Fowler's short fiction, dating back to the 1990s. What a treat I was in for. The colletion is a mixture of social realism, an obsession with serial killers, gore and black comedy, and some new twists on old horror tropes. London is often the backdrop to the tales collected here and Fowler brings it to life in a loving and macabre way that few authors can achieve.

The first three stories are an eclectic bunch. THE HUMAN ELEMENT is a depiction of a cruel and heartless city, as experienced by an inexperienced tourist. NORMAN WISDOM AND THE ANGEL OF DEATH is a masterful look at a serial killer who meets his match. ON EDGE is pure ghastliness, with a visit to the dentist that even the bravest would dread. THE MASTER BUILDER, a woman-in-peril thriller, is another masterwork and it's no surprise that a film version was made as it has a real cinematic quality to it.

THE TRAFALGAR LOCKDOWN offers some deep-space murkiness, and is brief and straightforward. PERFECT CASTING utilises Fowler's experience of the film industry for a well-described character study. IN PERSIA is a brief twist-in-the-tale, while BLACK DAY AT BAD ROCK is a fine reminiscence of school days in the 1970s. CHANG-SIU AND THE BLADE OF GRASS is a ghostly story set in ancient China, while THIRTEEN PLACES OF INTEREST IN KENTISH TOWN is a brilliantly-conceived travel guide that tells a murder story through subtlety and off-handedness.

LAST CALL FOR PASSENGER PAUL strives to capture the horror of a missed connection, while THE UNRELIABLE HISTORY OF PLASTER CITY is a filmic humans-vs-demons action tale. JOUISSANCE DE LA MORT is a one-joke story that somehow works thanks to the author's ghoulish glee at strange death. NIGHT AFTER NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD takes the overworked subject of flesh-eating zombies and offers a very British spin on them, while JUMBO PORTIONS will have you avoiding fast food outlets in future. THE LAUNDRY IMP is a traditional horror story told well in a mundane locale, while THE MOST BORING WOMAN IN THE WORLD is perhaps the most believable - and horrifying - story of them all.

DALE AND WAYNE GO SHOPPING is a splatter-fest in a supermarket, years before HOT FUZZ, and TALES FROM BRITANNICA CASTLE is the only one in the collection I didn't like, a fantasy of the grotesque that feels like an ill-advised riff on GORMENGHAST. MOTHER OF THE CITY is another fine exploration of a London which is very much living and breathing, while the closing story, TWO MURDERERS, explores the boring reality of serial killing.

[Katherine Tew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of horror short stories.

[Soho_Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Fowler has written numerous collections of short stories. “Uncut” was not a new collection when it was released, but something of a greatest hits package, bringing together some of the stories from his earlier collections, “City Jitters”, “The Bureau of Lost Souls”, “Sharper Knives” and “Flesh Wounds”. As a collection of highlights, the 21 stories contained herein has a little of everything that makes Fowler the great writer he is and runs the gamut of all the types of stories he had published in all the earlier collections.

Fowler specialises in urban horror, taking everyday circumstances and adding a twist which makes you look at things in a different way. “Jumbo Portions” will ruin takeaway food and “On Edge” will do the same for dentists, particularly for someone like me who is already scared of the dentist, whilst “Last Call for Passenger Paul” is not for someone with a nervousness about flying. Meanwhile, “The Master Builder” shows you how important it is to choose your builder wisely and “The Laundry Imp” may make you examine your clothing a little more carefully when you next take it out of the machine. Fowler can also write straight horror and “The Unreliable History of Plaster City” could have come from Stephen King.

However, Fowler can write in many genres and this collection gives us the fantasy-edged “In Persia” and “Chang-Siu and the Blade of Grass” and the Gothic “Tales of Britannica Castle”, which has shades of Mervyn Peake and Neil Gaiman and “The Trafalgar Lockdown” is an unexpected move into science-fiction. “Perfect Casting” and “Two Murderers are fairly straight thriller stories and “Black Day at Bad Rock” is a young adult story, in which the first and last sentences treat Mick Jagger fairly badly.

With all this said, Fowler’s main interests have always been film and a love of the city of London and his best writing often comes when he is focusing on these areas. “Mother of the City” is a London tale where Fowler’s love comes through in his writing and is possibly the best story he has ever written. Fowler is not afraid to have fun with his loves, however, as “Thirteen Places of Interest in Kentish Town” does with London and “Norman Wisdom and the Angel of Death” does with film, whilst “Jouissance de la Mort” is just Fowler having a lot of fun, as is the introduction.

There is only one tale which doesn’t work well here, which is “The Human Element”. This was originally published as a series of vignettes between stories in “City Jitters”. When I read it in that collection, I wasn’t sure it was strong enough to have been a story in its’ own right and, whilst it is a quirky little comedy of errors, it isn’t a great story and a rare weak moment in this collection specifically and in Fowler’s career as a whole.

This is very much a “Best Of…” collection of Fowler’s short stories, which can’t have been an easy task as most of Fowler’s stories are his best. This highlights all that Fowler writes often and writes well and also shows that he can turn his hand to pretty much anything. His best writing is here in the form of “Mother of the City” and “In Persia”, and his most entertaining side is here in several stories. There is literally nothing Fowler cannot write well and in this collection, here is a sample of everything that makes him so diverse and so brilliant.

[Dylan Lancaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book that I read by Christopher Fowler. I read it over two hot weeks staying at the Philbeach Hotel in Earls Court and it had a great impact on me. I was addicted and towards the end of the two weeks went to the nearest Waterstones and purchased his entire back catalogue that was still in print and have been addicted to his world ever since.

Basically it is a collection of short stories, some horrific, some very funny but all very moving and profound.

[Deborah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read 2 of the stories. Meh. I was fooled by the Time Out blurb on the cover. Stephen King must be crying all the way to the bank.