Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 7

Bad Dreams Can Come True Dept: On Wednesday I received my final cancer prognosis. My rogue cells have spread by an additional 20% throughout my organs. The failed treatment has now been halted and I’m effectively discharged. I feel like a disruptive influence being kicked out of school and sent home. I won’t pretend this week […]

As part of my life laundry, I’m attempting to be more selective in my viewing/ reading and therefore getting rid of anything that has dated badly. Or in the case of Spike Milligan’s ‘Q’ shows (a very long-running anarchic comedy sketch series), very badly indeed, with its comedy blackface and sexism not really making up […]

While I was writing ‘Bryant & May’s Peculiar London’ it became clear that most of what I knew about the city was wrong. In any single story I investigated, the facts changed from decade to decade. Worse, they continue to change to the present day, so that I was rewriting sections right up until we […]

‘Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?’ This old chestnut crops up from experts and amateurs alike, and with such regularity that the creation of any work of fiction is clearly a source of continuing interest. Whether you relish the planning process or prefer to throw all your cards in the air and see what […]

I remember early trips to the London Dungeon, especially when they had the terrifying Jabberwocky (a gigantic puppet used in the Terry Gilliam film) snarling inside a cave. It was a peculiar, vaguely disreputable experience that always felt a little unpredictable and dangerous – sadly now replaced with a tamer tourist attraction. I thought that […]

In fiction you can take your reader on the most fantastical journeys providing you give them something to believe in at the outset. When this doesn’t happen you end up with MCU movies, which are based on old comics from the 1960s/1970s and have very little to do with reality. When ‘Spiderman’ began, the main […]

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced since my prognosis has been dealing with the loss of my super powers, like walking in a straight line, standing on one leg for more than three seconds and not tripping over a toothpick. My father, a short Norman Wisdom-like man, fell over his own feet all the […]

We have reached Peak Sap. The longest day. The shortest night. The summer solstice. The highest point of fertility, after which the sun’s energy begins to wane and must be given a helping hand by the people of Catalunia, who celebrate this date each year with the night of fire in honour of St Joan, […]

Fret not, for ‘The Foot on the Crown’ (official title) will be published, although now you have me thinking about splitting it into two volumes. I never write long, which makes me suspicious that I had too much fun with this – probably more than the average reader can stand. (Not, dear fellows, that I […]

Remember the Friday Song? I ran it for years in an attempt to break tradition with writers’ blogs and make them a little more fun. Well, I think we need it now. So here are the delightful Reta Shaw and Eddie Foy Jr proving they can still cut a rug and put the young ‘uns […]