Richard Fowler

Advantages: Fast paced, and the title makes for a decent username...
Disadvantages: Reads a little like Pulp Fiction watches

..., but not before he’s passed along his stock to a friend, and sold some of it on. Sadly for his customers, the result of taking the drug is to induce swift and sever psychosis, and most of the people who have taken it have killed themselves in fairly spectacular fashion, often taking a few other people along with them. As if to indicate the intertwining of people’s lives in Soho, Cotton’s friend is a guy called Lucas – who works as a runner at Richard Tyler’s film company. The murder of Malcolm Cotton means that detectives Bryant and May become involved, trying to trace the drug, and work out who killed him. Of course, while they’re trying to find this out, more people take the drug and death happens all around them. In fact, about the only death that they’re not interested in is Richard’s. Regular readers of Fowler will recognise these names... Read review

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Advantages: A great interactive book for young children
Disadvantages: Try not to lose the bee!

...This is an excellent, interactive book for young children. ~ Richard Fowler ~ I have only ever seen two books by this author and both are highly interactive and great for young children: * Honeybee's Busy Day * Ladybug on the move (in which children can move a ladybird through the garden, meeting a variety of bugs) ~ Honeybee's Busy Day ~ On the front cover of this book there is a little plastic wallet, strategically placed on a large flower, in which sits the bee. The concept behind this book is that children take this cardboard bee with them through the book, simple but very effective! The story begins on a warm sunny day and Honeybee is gathering nectar from the flowers to make in to honey. She flies from a red poppy to a blue cornflower, on to a yellow iris. She then meets some ducks who ask him to come for a swim bu she... Read review

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Advantages: A sweeping vision, totally reinventing London as you know it.
Disadvantages: Perhaps the book could have been longer, to better exploit the setting...

...Having just reviewed Christopher Fowler's 'Roofworld' elsewhere on this site, it's a little tricky to be entirely objective about 'Neverwhere'. Once again, we have a secret society living in London, on this occasion beneath the streets. On this occasion though, we have a realm rooted more deeply in fantasy than the plausible, where monsters roam, and characters are both unworldly and familiar. Take for example the Angel called Islington, the girl named Door, and the Earl who holds court on a tube train. Around them are the people who have fallen between the cracks in society, the lost and forlorn given a new and fascinating world. Into the middle of this drops businessman Richard Mayhew, lured beneath the streets by an act of kindness. It seems he must join battle in this strange new world, which is a shame, because he just wants... Read review

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