Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 508

Why do I suddenly know so many single women? Lately it's started to bother me. They're smart, they're in great jobs, they're fit, they can do their own wiring, but they've hit 35 and can't find anyone nice. The men they meet are married, gay or mad. It can't just be that men over 30 [...:]

I'm the first person to tell you how much I love London, but there's one day I dread around this time. I know it's irrational, but coming back from holiday is a bit more horrible every year, and this year will be the worst.

I'll spend several lifespans at airport check-in behind a sunburned hulk in [...:]

You know, the cheery, sweaty Greek stereotype serving the fat ginger British tourist sterotypes in Greece? And of course, here and from Goa to Ibiza you do find a certain kind of British tourist, the one in the photo (incredibly, proudly used as a role model for this shot from an ad for mustard), who [...:]

Hotel bookshelves are very revealing. It seems European tastes are all the same when it comes to holiday reading; Karin Slaughter, Patricia Cornwell, the ubiquitous Stieg and various local equivalents – seems we don't stray too far from safety by the side of the pool. American hotels reveal a slightly different story, with self-help and [...:]

Ah. There you are. Only I'm not. I'm in Greece, travelling around for a few days, but I have intermittent WiFi on my MacBook Air, which weighs only a fraction more than an iPad and is a proper computer. While I'm here I'll be working on two new projects outside of the Bryant & May [...:]

It was a gamble, to write a memoir and try to sell it. I was merrily skipping genres again, but Transworld was wonderfully supportive, and took the book. Next came a couple of high-risk strategies; I took a low advance in exchange for a better return in paperback, and hired a freelance publicist to work [...:]

The 19th-century President of the Royal Academy, Frederic, Lord Leighton spent 30 years creating the "Private Palace of Art" on the edge of Holland Park. Starting with a single house in 1866, the painter and sculptor Leighton slowly added a domed two-storey extension, which he stuffed with exquisite materials and furnishings from around the world.

The [...:]

…the conviction that you might just be able to wedge just one more book onto a full shelf without the ends coming off.

It seems churlish to complain that the book which has just inspired the sixth film in history to gross $1 billion at the box office worldwide has never been well-represented on screen. Clearly Alice is doing something right, even tricked out in 3D with the girl replaced by a grown woman. Alice is now one [...:]

I'm a pretty well-read guy. An author, after all, has to be familiar with the tools of the trade. I don't sell the kind of figures that get me invited to the Hay Literary Festival, and I don't think I'm dim – Jeez, even Jerry Hall got invited, and don't tell me she's a rocket [...:]