Christopher Fowler

Christopher Fowler
Born Christopher Fowler
(1953-03-26) 26 March 1953
Greenwich, London
Occupation Novelist
Nationality British
Period 1984–present
Genre Thriller
Notable works Bryant & May Mysteries
Website
www.christopherfowler.co.uk

Christopher Fowler (born 26 March 1953) is an English thriller writer. He is the award-winning author of more than forty novels and short-story collections, including the Bryant & May mysteries, which record the adventures of two Golden Age detectives in modern-day London. The recipient of the 2015 Dagger In The Library, his other works include screenplays, video games, graphic novels, audio and stage plays. He writes a weekly column in The Independent on Sunday called "Invisible Ink". He was born in Greenwich, London. He lives in King's Cross, London[1] and Barcelona.

Bryant and May Mysteries

Fowler is the author of the Bryant and 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. The series comprises: Full Dark House, The Water Room, Seventy-Seven Clocks, Ten Second Staircase, White Corridor, The Victoria Vanishes, Bryant & May On the Loose, Bryant & May Off the Rails, Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood, Bryant & May and the Invisible Code, Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart, Bryant & May and the Burning Man, Bryant & May: London's Glory, Bryant and May: Strange Tide and Bryant and May: Wild Chamber,[2] with further volumes to follow. The series is also available in audiobook format, narrated by Tim Goodman. Bryant and May, as well as other characters from this series, also appear in Fowler's Rune, Darkest Day, and Soho Black, although these books are not considered part of the series.

The Bryant and May series is set primarily in London, with stories taking place in various years between World War II and the present. While there is a progressive narrative, each of the cases stand alone as separate stories. The exceptions are: Full Dark House, an origin story which focuses on John May's reminiscence of the team's first case together during the Blitz, Seventy Seven Clocks, framed as Arthur Bryant's retelling of a case from 1973, and On The Loose and Off The Rails, which continue characters and events across two books.

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 networks of tunnels and underground rivers underneath the city. London can be considered a separate character in the novels

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 similarities with The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin. Other puzzles, paradoxes and jokes are tucked into the narratives, rewarding regular readers.

Other novels and short stories

His 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,[3] 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.[4]

Put into different temporal settings, some elements of his original 2008 story “Arkangel” from Exotic Gothic 2[5] reappear in his 2012 frame-novel Hell Train (a book called “must read now!” by SciFiNow[6]), including the Polish town of Chelmsk, and the physical descriptions of its white gold-rivetted damnation train Arkangel, and the town’s yokels.[7]

His memoir of a lonely 1960s childhood, Paperboy, won the inaugural Green Carnation prize, which celebrates fiction and memoirs written by gay men.[8] 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.

Novels and collections

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 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[9] B&M 7 2009 ISBN 978-0-385-61465-8
Bryant & May Off the Rails[10] B&M 8 2010 ISBN 978-0-553-80720-2
Bryant and 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 and the Invisible Code B&M 10 2012 ISBN 978-0857520500
Film Freak (autobiography) 2013 ISBN 978-0857521606
The Casebook of Bryant and May (graphic novel) 2013 ISBN 978-1848634565
Plastic 2013 ISBN 978-1781081242
Bryant and May and the Bleeding Heart B&M 11 2014 ISBN 978-0345547651
Bryant and May and the Secret Santa B&M 11.5 2015 ISBN 978-1101968970
Bryant and May and the Burning Man B&M 12 2015 ISBN 978-0345547682
The Sand Men 2015 ISBN 978-1781083741
Bryant and May: London's Glory (short stories) B&M 12.5 2016 ISBN 978-0857523457
Bryant and May: Strange Tide B&M 13 2016 ISBN 978-1101887035
"Bryant and May: Wild Chamber" B&M 14 2017 ISBN 978-0857523433

Forgotten Authors series

Fowler 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.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Penguin Books".
  2. ↑ "Bryant and May". Penguin. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Through the Eyes of a Killer on IMDb
  4. ↑ "The British Fantasy Awards". Archived from the original on 5 December 2006.
  5. ↑ Fowler, Christopher (2008). "Arkangel." Exotic Gothic 2. Ed. Danel Olson. Ashcroft, British Columbia: Ash-Tree Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-1-55310-109-3.
  6. ↑ Morton, Sophi (2012). "HELL TRAIN: The ride of your life... or death". SciFiNow (62): 86.
  7. ↑ Fowler, Christopher (2012). "Chapter 3: Arrival". Hell Train. Oxford, UK: Solaris Books/Rebellion Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907992-44-5.
  8. ↑ Page, Benedicte (1 December 2010). "Paperboy wins inaugural prize for gay men's books" – via The Guardian.
  9. ↑ ""Bryant & May: Death Or Glory?", the author's blog, 24 August 2008".
  10. ↑ ""Bryant & May Return in Two-Book Deal", the author's blog, 18 March 2009".
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