Christopher Fowler


Christopher Fowler is an English thriller writer. While working in the British film industry he became the award-winning author of fifty novels and short-story collections, including the Bryant & May mysteries, which record the adventures of two Golden Age detectives in modern-day London. His awards include the 2015 CWA Dagger In The Library, The Last Laugh Award and the British Fantasy Award, the Edge Hill Prize and the inaugural Green Carnation Award. His other works include screenplays, video games, graphic novels, audio and stage plays. He was born in Greenwich, London. He lives in Barcelona and King's Cross, London.

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 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.
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. 'Hall of Mirrors' is set in 1968. There are two volumes of missing cases, 'London's Glory' and 'England's Finest'.
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. In 'Off The Rails' the London Underground tube network is explored.
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. Although the books appear to have bizarre, uncanny elements, they are not in any way supernatural or fantastical. The unit in which they are set is based on real post-war London units.

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, 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.
Put into different temporal settings, some elements of his original 2008 story “Arkangel” from Exotic Gothic 2 reappear in his 2012 frame-novel Hell Train, including the Polish town of Chelmsk, and the physical descriptions of its white gold-rivetted damnation train Arkangel, and the town's yokels.
His memoir of a lonely 1960s childhood, Paperboy, won the inaugural Green Carnation prize, which celebrates fiction and memoirs written by gay men. 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 is currently at work on a new thriller, 'Summer Dies', and a complete collection of his short stories from 1985 to the present.
Further works include:
Nyctophobia
Solaris Books
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

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.

Novels and collections

How to Impersonate Famous People1984
The Ultimate Party Book1985
City Jitters1986
More City Jitters1988
Roofworld1988
The Bureau of Lost Souls 1989
Rune1990
Red Bride1992
Sharper Knives1992
Darkest Day1993
Spanky1994
Flesh Wounds1995
Psychoville1995
Menz Insana 1997
Disturbia1997
Soho Black1998
Personal Demons1998
Uncut1999
Calabash2000
The Devil in Me2004
Demonized2004
Full Dark HouseB&M 12004
Breathe2004
The Water RoomB&M 22004
Seventy-Seven ClocksB&M 32005
Ten Second StaircaseB&M 42006
Old Devil Moon2007
White CorridorB&M 52007
The Victoria VanishesB&M 62008
Paperboy 2009
Bryant & May On The LooseB&M 72009
Bryant & May Off the RailsB&M 82010
Bryant and May and the Memory of BloodB&M 92011
Hell Train2012
Bryant & May: The Invisible CodeB&M 102012
Film Freak 2013
The Casebook of Bryant and May 2013
Plastic2013
Bryant & May: The Bleeding HeartB&M 112014
Bryant and May and the Secret Santa B&M 11.52015
Bryant & May and the Burning ManB&M 122015
The Sand Men2015
Bryant & May: London's Glory B&M 132016
Bryant & May: Strange TideB&M 142016
Bryant & May: Wild ChamberB&M 152017
Bryant & May: Hall of MirrorsB&M 162018
Bryant & May: The Lonely HourB&M 172019
Bryant & May: England's Finest B&M 182019
Bryant & May: Oranges and Lemons B&M 192020