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interview | short story 'Home Again' | spanish translation

photo: Seamus A. Ryan

Christopher FowlerChristopher Fowler

...Lives and works in central London, where he runs Soho film company The Creative Partnership, a unique organisation that creates movie marketing for most major and independent film companies in the UK.

Fowler and his staff write and produce TV and radio scripts, documentaries, trailers and promos, for everyone from John Cleese and Eddie Murphy to the Spice Girls and Eddie Izzard, and for directors like Almodovar, Bertolucci, Zeffirelli, Tarantino, Greenaway and Mike Leigh. They created the campaigns for Reservoir Dogs, The Full Monty, Pulp Fiction, Nil By Mouth, Live Flesh, Velvet Goldmine, Romeo And Juliet and Trainspotting.  For half of each day Fowler works with the writers, producers and artists at The Creative Partnership. During the other half of the day he writes novels and short stories.

Although he began his career writing humour books, he switched to a category that he has gradually made his own:  urban unease.  His first short story anthology, City Jitters, featured interlinked tales of urban malevolence. He has since had five further volumes of short stories published: City Jitters Two, The Bureau Of Lost Souls, Sharper Knives and Flesh Wounds and Personal Demons, published in June 1998 by Serpent's Tail.

One story, 'The Master Builder', aired as a CBS movie starring Tippi Hedren. Another, 'Left Hand Drive', became a short film and won Best British Short Film in 1993. It ran nationally in cinemas before airing on Channel Four. Other stories have been published in Time Out, The Big Issue, the Independent On Sunday and The Mail On Sunday.

Fowler's first novel, Roofworld, was a national bestseller; it concernes rival gangs who live on the rooftops of London, fighting arcane battles while the city sleeps. The book is being reissued by Little, Brown; and Granada Films are developing a film version, written by Jonathan Hales, writer of the new Star Wars film.

His second novel, Rune, tells the tale of a disparate group of Londoners who band together to prevent the devil's return to earth via modern technology. Rune is currently in development as a medium-budget feature, and the book was reissued in May 1998 by Little, Brown.

Red Bride chronicles a modern marriage made hell by a couple who cannot trust each other - even though their lives finally come to depend on it.

Darkest Day, his longest novel, is the story of an occult Victorian legacy that destroys a family and has horrific repercussions throughout the modern business world.

These four novels loosely make up a 'London Quartet'. Fowler's characters cross in each other's tales to build a portrait of an alternative London, a city that might have been, and may well be.

His fifth novel, Spanky, heralded a change of pace and style. This Faustian novel concerns a young man and his demonic, amoral alter-ego, and became a best seller in London's Top Ten Books. It is currently in development at Columbia-Tristar with Guillermo Del Toro directing a Martin Scorsese production.

Following this was Psychoville, a dark suburban satire in which a young couple who share a psychologically damaging upbringing return to wreak havoc on their old neighbourhood. His screenplay for Natural Nylon has recently been cast with Jude Law and Sadie Frost in the lead roles, and is to be directed by Stefan (Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert) Elliot.

Disturbia (July, 1997) concerns a young working-class journalist who is challenged by an upper-class adversary to solve a series of bizarre puzzles and survive the night in storm-swept London.  Fowler has also written a screenplay.

His latest novel is titled Soho Black, and concerns a stressed executive who takes a trip into lifestyle-hell after he suffers a fatal heart attack in a fashionable bar. This blackly comic thriller was released August 1998 by Little, Brown.

Following this comes Uncut, a Best-Of anthology, also from Little, Brown.

All of these books have been or are being published throughout Europe, Canada and Australia.

Fowler's first graphic novel for DC Comics, Menz Insana, was a tale concerning murderous insanity and the pursuit of happiness, drawn by acclaimed Batman artist John Bolton, and published in July 1997.

After concluding his regular review column in Time Out, Fowler  now produces articles and columns for a variety of genre magazines. His most recent short stories appear in The Time Out Book Of London Short Stories, Dark Terrors 3, London Noir, Neon Lit., A Book Of Two Halves, Vengeance Is, Love In Vein 2, Destination Unknown, 100 Fiendish Little Frightmares, and The Time Out Book Of New York Stories.

 


Something you would like to ask the author? Christopher Fowler himself will answer via his own message board.

interview | short story | spanish translation

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