Film Freak Synopsis
It's the late 1970s and 20-something. Christopher Fowler is a film freak, obsessively watching lousy films in run-down fleapit cinemas. He longs to be a famous screenwriter and put his dreams on the big screen. And so he heads for Wardour Street, Britain's equivalent of Hollywood. But he's made a spectacular mistake, arriving just as the nation's filmmakers are falling to their knees, brought low by the arrival of video and the destruction of the old movie palaces. The only films being made are smutty low budget farces and TV spinoffs and instead of being asked to write another 'Bullitt', he's churning out short films advertising boilers and nylon sheets. Somehow, against the odds, he finds success - although in a very different guise to the one he expected. From the sticky Axminster of the local cinema to the red carpet at Cannes, Film Freak is a grimly hilarious and acutely observed trawl through the arse-end of the British film industry that turns into an ultimately affecting search for friendship and happiness.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780857501790 |
| Publication date: |
27th February 2014 |
| Author: |
Christopher Fowler |
| Publisher: |
Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group) an imprint of Transworld Publishers Ltd |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
352 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Recommendations: |
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Christopher Fowler Press Reviews
'Film Freak is Fowler's brisk, chatty memoir... His writing is peppered with trenchantly funny film references. Fowler's gifts are those of a performing raconteur more than a cultural essayist - but he's so entertaining, moment by moment, that you readily accept this deal.' - Daily Telegraph
'A master storyteller, he slips deftly from fiction to fact: I've rarely read a better analysis of the movie business...This is a beautifully written and often hilarious book.' - Sunday Express
'a natural autobiographer, charming, funny, perceptive and mercifully free of the usual egomaniacal windbaggery... I was so smitten with this book that I read it through from cover to cover in one sitting. At times, I found myself laughing loudly and lengthily. Above all, though, I was moved.' - John Preston Daily Mail
'An homage to pre-digital cinema, an elegy for a vanishing London of almost half a century ago and a tribute to friendship, gonzo-style. Two thumbs up for this triple-billing.' - FINANCIAL TIMES
'He's written a roomful of books, including the Bryant & May series of crimers, but his memoirs are just as much fun... Hugely entertaining this.' - Sunday Sport
About Christopher Fowler
Christopher Fowler is the award-winning author of over thirty novels and twelve short story collections, and the Bryant & May mystery novels, which record the adventures of two Golden Age detectives investigating impossible London crimes. His latest books are the sinister comedy-thriller ‘Plastic’, the memoir ‘Film Freak’ and the haunted-house novel ‘Nyctophobia’. Other work includes the ‘War of the Worlds’ videogame, a graphic novel and a Hammer horror radio play. He has a weekly column in The Independent On Sunday. He spends his time between London and Barcelona..
Christopher Fowler was the winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library 2015.
More About Christopher Fowler
