Christopher Robert Fowler (26 March 1953 – 2 March 2023) was an English writer. While working in the British film industry he authored fifty novels and short story collections, including the Bryant & May mysteries, which record the adventures of two Golden Age detectives in modern-day London. He also wrote a psychological thriller, Little Boy Found, under the pseudonym L.K. Fox.[1] His other works include screenplays, video games, graphic novels, audio and stage plays.
Christopher Fowler | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christopher Robert Fowler 26 March 1953 London, England |
| Died | 2 March 2023 (aged 69) London, England |
| Pen name | L. K. Fox |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Period | 1984–2022 |
| Genre | Thriller, crime fiction |
| Notable works | Bryant & May Mysteries |
| Website | |
| www | |
Fowler's awards include the 2015 CWA Dagger in the Library (for his entire body of work), The Last Laugh Award (twice) and the British Fantasy Award (multiple times), the Edge Hill Prize and the inaugural Green Carnation Award. He was inducted into the Detection Club in 2021.
Early life
editFowler was born in Greenwich, London, the son of a legal secretary and a glassblower and manufacturer of scientific instruments.[2] He was educated at Colfe’s grammar school in Lee before enrolling to study art at Goldsmiths College in 1972.[3]
Career
editBefore becoming a novelist, Fowler was a copywriter and film marketer. At the age of 26, he founded the film promotion company, The Creative Partnership, with producer Jim Sturgeon, producing trailers, posters and commercials for radio and TV.[4] He wrote the tag-line for the 1979 sci-fi/horror movie Alien, "In space, no one can hear you scream".[5]
Bryant & May mysteries
editFowler was best known as the author of the Bryant & May mysteries, in which the two detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, are members of the fictional Peculiar Crimes Unit, based on a unit his father worked in during World War II.[6]
The Bryant & May series is set primarily in London, with stories taking place in various years between World War II and the present.[7] While there is a progressive narrative, the cases each stand alone as separate stories. The exceptions are Full Dark House, an origin story which focuses on May's reminiscence of the team's first case together during the Blitz; Seventy-Seven Clocks, framed as Bryant's retelling of a case from 1973; and On the Loose and Off the Rails, which continue characters and events across two books. Hall of Mirrors is set in 1969; at one point, the characters discuss the events of that summer: the Woodstock music festival, the Moon landing, and the Manson murders. There are two volumes of "missing cases" (short stories), London's Glory and England's Finest.[6]
Fowler weaves many factual layers of London's history and society throughout the series. Most of the locations are recognisable London landmarks such as St Paul's Cathedral, the Tate Gallery and various theatres. A major feature of The Water Room is the network of tunnels and underground rivers underneath the city. In Off the Rails they explore the London Underground network.[8]
There are many references to other literary works throughout the series. Seventy-Seven Clocks contains references to Gilbert and Sullivan throughout the narrative, while The Victoria Vanishes has deliberate similarities with The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin.[9] Although the books appear to have bizarre, uncanny elements, they are not in any way supernatural or fantastical.[10] The unit in which they are set is based on real post-war London units.
The series is also available in audiobook format, narrated by Tim Goodman. Characters from this series also appear in Fowler's Roofworld, Rune, Darkest Day, and Soho Black, although these books are not considered part of the series.
Other novels and short stories
editFowler's book Rune is an update to a modern setting of the M. R. James story "Casting the Runes". It also features Bryant, May and several characters from that series.
His story "The Master Builder" was filmed as Through the Eyes of a Killer,[11] starring Richard Dean Anderson, Marg Helgenberger and Tippi Hedren. His tenth short story collection, Old Devil Moon, won the Edge Hill Audience Prize 2008. His short story "Left Hand Drive" was made into a film that won Best British Short. His stories "On Edge" and "The Most Boring Woman in the World" were both filmed. His novella Breathe won the British Fantasy Society Award for best novella in 2005.[12]
Put into different temporal settings, some elements of his original 2008 story "Arkangel" from Exotic Gothic 2[13] reappear in his 2012 frame-novel Hell Train (a book called "must read now!” by SciFiNow[14]), including the Polish town of Chelmsk, the physical descriptions of its white gold-rivetted damnation train Arkangel and the town's yokels.[15]
His memoir of a lonely 1960s childhood, Paperboy, won the inaugural Green Carnation prize, which celebrates fiction and memoirs written by gay men.[16] A sequel, Film Freak, charted his travels through the British film industry. His collection Red Gloves consisted of 25 new stories marking a quarter-century in print, two graphic novels and a Hammer horror radio play. He also wrote a Sherlock Holmes audio drama for BBC 7 entitled The Lady Downstairs and the War of the Worlds videogame with Sir Patrick Stewart, for Paramount. He was at work on a new thriller, Summer Dies, and a complete collection of his short stories from 1985 to when he died. The third and final installment of his memoir on writing, Word Monkey, was published posthumously.[17]
Further works include:
- Nyctophobia (2014) Solaris Books ISBN 978-1781082102, a haunted house novel set in bright daylight about a woman who is terrified of the dark
- The Casebook of Bryant & May, a graphic novel illustrated by Keith Page
- Menz Insana, a graphic novel illustrated by John Bolton
Forgotten Authors series
editFowler wrote a periodic column for The Independent titled Invisible Ink. In this series, he looked at a wide range of writers whose works, once popular, have now fallen out of the public eye. His book version, The Book of Forgotten Authors, is published by Quercus.[18]
Personal life and death
editFowler lived in Barcelona and King's Cross, London.[2] His husband, Peter Chapman, was a TV executive.[19]
Fowler was diagnosed with cancer in March 2020, which he announced on his blog the following April. He died in London on 2 March 2023, at the age of 69.[5][20]
Joanne Harris wrote about him for The Bookseller, speaking of his support for upcoming writers and his "peerless talent": "He has been the most enduring influence of my career, both as a writer and as a friend."[21]
Novels and collections
edit| Title | B&M? | Year | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to Impersonate Famous People | 1984 | ISBN 0-7043-3463-1 | |
| The Ultimate Party Book | 1985 | ISBN 0-04-793087-X | |
| City Jitters | 1986 | ISBN 0-7221-3704-4 | |
| More City Jitters | 1988 | ISBN 0-4402-0146-2 | |
| Roofworld | 1988 | ISBN 0-7126-2421-X | |
| The Bureau of Lost Souls (US: More City Jitters) | 1989 | ISBN 0-7126-2459-7 | |
| Rune | 1990 | ISBN 0-7126-3466-5 | |
| Red Bride | 1992 | ISBN 0-356-20805-2 | |
| Sharper Knives | 1992 | ISBN 0-7515-0152-2 | |
| Darkest Day | 1993 | ISBN 0-316-90534-8 | |
| Spanky | 1994 | ISBN 0-7515-0959-0 | |
| Flesh Wounds | 1995 | ISBN 0-7515-1431-4 | |
| Psychoville | 1995 | ISBN 0-7515-1664-3 | |
| Menz Insana (graphic novel) | 1997 | ISBN 1-56389-300-2 | |
| Disturbia | 1997 | ISBN 0-7515-1910-3 | |
| Soho Black | 1998 | ISBN 0-7515-2559-6 | |
| Personal Demons | 1998 | ISBN 1-85242-597-0 | |
| Uncut | 1999 | ISBN 0-7515-2644-4 | |
| Calabash | 2000 | ISBN 0-7515-3040-9 | |
| The Devil in Me | 2004 | ISBN 1-85242-768-X | |
| Demonized (short stories) | 2004 | ISBN 1-85242-848-1 | |
| Full Dark House | B&M 1 | 2004 | ISBN 0-553-81552-0 |
| Breathe | 2004 | ISBN 1-903889-67-7 | |
| The Water Room | B&M 2 | 2004 | ISBN 0-385-60554-4 |
| Seventy-Seven Clocks | B&M 3 | 2005 | ISBN 0-385-60885-3 |
| Ten Second Staircase | B&M 4 | 2006 | ISBN 0-385-60886-1 |
| Old Devil Moon | 2007 | ISBN 978-1-85242-925-6 | |
| White Corridor | B&M 5 | 2007 | ISBN 978-0-385-61067-4 |
| The Victoria Vanishes | B&M 6 | 2008 | ISBN 978-0-385-61068-1 |
| Paperboy (autobiography) | 2009 | ISBN 978-0-385-61557-0 | |
| Bryant & May on the Loose[22] | B&M 7 | 2009 | ISBN 978-0-385-61465-8 |
| Bryant & May Off the Rails[23] | B&M 8 | 2010 | ISBN 978-0-553-80720-2 |
| Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood | B&M 9 | 2011 | ISBN 978-0-85752-049-4 |
| Hell Train | 2012 | ISBN 978-1-907992-44-5 | |
| Bryant & May: The Invisible Code | B&M 10 | 2012 | ISBN 978-0857520500 |
| Film Freak (autobiography) | 2013 | ISBN 978-0857521606 | |
| The Casebook of Bryant & May (graphic novel) | B&M | 2013 | ISBN 978-1848634565 |
| Plastic | 2013 | ISBN 978-1781081242 | |
| Bryant & May: The Bleeding Heart | B&M 11 | 2014 | ISBN 978-0345547651 |
| Bryant & May and the Secret Santa (single short story) | B&M 11.5 | 2015 | ISBN 978-1101968970 |
| Bryant & May and the Burning Man | B&M 12 | 2015 | ISBN 978-0345547682 |
| The Sand Men | 2015 | ISBN 978-1781083741 | |
| Bryant & May: London's Glory (short stories) | B&M 13 | 2016 | ISBN 978-0857523457 |
| Bryant & May: Strange Tide | B&M 14 | 2016 | ISBN 978-1101887035 |
| Little Boy Found (as LK Fox) | 2017 | ASIN B06XJ5G9CH | |
| Bryant & May: Wild Chamber | B&M 15 | 2017 | ISBN 978-0857523433 |
| Bryant & May: Hall of Mirrors | B&M 16 | 2018 | ISBN 978-0857523440 |
| Bryant & May: The Lonely Hour | B&M 17 | 2019 | ISBN 978-08575-2568-0 |
| Bryant & May: England's Finest (short stories) | B&M 18 | 2019 | ISBN 978-08575-2569-7 |
| Bryant & May: Oranges and Lemons | B&M 19 | 2020 | ISBN 978-08575-2570-3 |
| Bryant & May: London Bridge Is Falling Down | B&M 20 | 2021 | ISBN 978-0-593-35621-0 |
| Hot water | 2022 | ISBN 978-1-78909-984-3 | |
| Bryant & May’s Peculiar London | B&M | 2022 | ISBN 978-0-85752-784-4 |
| Word Monkey | 2023 | ISBN 978-0-8575-2962-6 |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Christopher Fowler (Estate)". Watson Little. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Penguin Books".
- ^ Holland, Steve (20 March 2023). "Christopher Fowler obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ Feay, Suzi (10 July 2021). "Bryant & May author Christopher Fowler: 'Writing the end was really emotional'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ a b Barnett, David (3 March 2023). "Bryant & May novelist Christopher Fowler has died aged 69". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
- ^ a b "The History Of Bryant & May | Christopher Fowler website". www.christopherfowler.co.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ Suzi Feay (10 July 2021). "Bryant & May author Christopher Fowler: 'Writing the end was really emotional'". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ SFFWorld (23 September 2012). "The Water Room by Christopher Fowler – SFFWorld". Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (26 November 2014). "So Is It a Murder, if the Corpse Is Undead?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ Dirda, Michael (19 May 2023). "Michael Dirda reviews Christopher Fowler's 'The Memory of Blood'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ Through the Eyes of a Killer at IMDb
- ^ "The British Fantasy Awards". Archived from the original on 5 December 2006.
- ^ Fowler, Christopher (2008). "Arkangel." Exotic Gothic 2. Ed. Danel Olson. Ashcroft, British Columbia: Ash-Tree Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-1-55310-109-3.
- ^ Morton, Sophi (2012). "HELL TRAIN: The ride of your life... or death". SciFiNow (62): 86.
- ^ Fowler, Christopher (2012). "Chapter 3: Arrival". Hell Train. Oxford, UK: Solaris Books/Rebellion Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907992-44-5.
- ^ Page, Benedicte (1 December 2010). "Paperboy wins inaugural prize for gay men's books" – via The Guardian.
- ^ Chapman, Pete (5 September 2023). "'Healthy or downright weird?': how I helped publish my husband Christopher Fowler's posthumous book". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "The Book of Forgotten Authors". Quercus. Archived from the original on 14 July 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- ^ Feay, Suzi (10 July 2021). "Bryant & May author Christopher Fowler: 'Writing the end was really emotional'". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
- ^ "Christopher Fowler (1953-2023)". Locus. 3 March 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
- ^ "'He wrote because he loved it'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ "Bryant & May: Death Or Glory". The author's blog, 24 August 2008.
- ^ "Bryant & May Return in Two-Book Deal". The author's blog, 18 March 2009.
External links
edit- Christopher Fowler's website
- BBC Sherlock Holmes site Short story by Christopher Fowler — The Lady Downstairs
- Story behind Plastic - Online essay written by Fowler
- The story behind The Bleeding Heart - Online essay written by Fowler
- Christopher Fowler at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database