Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
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The official Blog of Christopher Fowler, the multi-award-winning author of over thirty novels and twelve short story collections.
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
What do writers think about when they’re not writing? They think about writing. They try to imagine impossible dilemmas for their characters. I once spent five months trying to unknot a stubborn plot twist in a short story. I failed because I was at fault, not the story. For me Bryant & May were always different ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
I’m currently reading hard SF writer Paul McAuley’s majestic dissection of Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’, written for the BFI. Like most writers, he delivers other pieces outside of his regular novel output. I realised that I’d kept a huge electronic file of old articles, unseen pieces and bits of fiction, many of which have dated but are ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
*Oops, that headline looks like it was written by Anne Elk, especially if you put ‘Chris’ after it. It was Noel Coward who commented on the potency of cheap music, touching on something that has always fascinated me. It applies to music, but as much to images and phrases that linger in the mind for ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
I’m always astonished by the number of brilliant authors we have in this country who, if Amazon is to be believed, barely register on popular book charts. The problem is with the chart itself which is always the same, starting flat, curving gently upwards and eventually descending to tail away. Let’s call the centre of the ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
pyeople I type it again. pepople And again. peoytle Do you mean peyotl? people One word done. Onto the next. That’s what it’s like. Fatigue hits you like a wall. The Husband, who doesn’t really believe that illness exists unless it’s very visible, says that ME is a ‘fake illness’. I know it’s not because ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
We’ve often talked, you and I, about the tragic fate of the humorous novel (this is how I think of us, snuggled in front of the fire with a glass and a pile of books, not hunched over a laptop alone with a blanket over my knees because London is so fracking cold), but I’m ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
My agent and I agreed the other day that publishers are not listening to teen readers who turn to the largely free and vast resource of online fiction. After all, how do you begin to get a handle on it? Noël Coward, judgemental arch-snob, bullied his performers about preserving the clarity of language. He is ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
‘I say, sir, a missive from the Royal Mail has arrived for you from a Ms Maggie Armitage. It appears to have been up a dead bear’s bum. Perhaps the sender has been incarcerated for many years and managed to smuggle it out to you. It smells of chewing gum and Toilet Duck.’ ‘Pray read ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
They used to talk of the ‘elevator pitch’ – a three-minute blast of information that reduces your book/ film/ play to something even an executive can understand. Today I still produce a synopsis for each book I write, so that editors can present them at internal meetings. But I’m really bad at them, and for ..read more
Christopher Fowler | Reading & Writing
9M ago
In ‘Film Freak’ I recounted this anecdote; A girl I knew, Amber, specialised in performing pantomimes in old folks’ homes. In one such place in Sevenoaks she played Cinderella. During the intermission she waited in full ball gown costume at the foot of the stage because there were no changing rooms, and a very old ..read more