CHRISTOPHER FOWLER: R.I.P.

Christopher Fowler, author of the Bryant & May series of detective novels, died yesterday at the age of 69, This was not a surprise since he had been diagnosed with cancer three years ago.He had a debilitating cancer that he wrote about it on his blog and elsewhere, but still. Such a loss. He was a marvelous writer who entertained us with the escapades of Bryant & May for many years. He will be missed.

From The Guardian 

Fowler was best known for his Bryant & May thrillers, featuring the veteran detectives solving unusual crimes in London from the second world war to the present day. The series began with Full Dark House in 2003, and 17 more novels followed, most recently London Bridge Is Falling Down, published in 2021. A further book exploring the London of the characters, Bryant & May’s Peculiar London, came out last year. 

Fowler’s death was announced late on Thursday by his husband, Pete, who posted on the writer’s Twitter account: “Christopher Robert Fowler, 3 score & 10, 1953-2023. His sparkle, joy and humour are gone, but remain in my heart and his work. What a remarkable person we all shared. Goodbye to a beautiful man, a beautiful mind, my partner in crime and soulmate. Pete x Happy #WorldBookDay2023” 

Born in Greenwich, London, on 26 March 1953, Fowler split his time between London and Barcelona before his cancer diagnosis in 2020. He began his career as a copywriter and founded the film marketing company the Creative Partnership, coming up with the tag-line for the Alien movie in 1979: “In space, no one can hear you scream”. 

A prolific blogger, even in the age of social media, he announced his illness on his website in April 2020, writing: “On Christmas Eve I came down with a severe flu-like cold that kept boomeranging back. On March 24th, the day the UK coronavirus lockdown began, I was finally diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. It was spectacularly bad timing. Getting into the system for treatment proved impossible for a month, because our hospitals were daily rethinking their structure. Doctors managed to devise a complicated multiple-therapy system for me and I’ve now started treatment.” 

 

His final words on his blog: 

 “It’s very hard to write now without falling asleep or forgetting what I was going to say. If there’s something I really need to get out I’ll put it on Twitter. So you might want to check your old @peculiar feed once in a while. All fun things have to come to an end. I love you all. Except for that horrible old troll – are there any other kind? There, now you have a smidgen of extra time on your hands, go have fun … and read a book.”