The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler

I’ve still got plenty of Fowler to discover, a quick tot-up of his books listed inside the front cover suggest 43 publications in total. This book puts the Fowler total up to 15 (+ 1 I’ve read twice in this time) which pushes him further ahead from his nearest competitors, Charles Dickens (12) and Peter Ackroyd (11 + 2 re-reads). You wouldn’t know it from this blog as this is probably his first mention in over 400 posts but since I’ve been keeping my own meticulous records of what I’ve been reading (I’ve always done this but lost a book which went back quite a few years), so we’re talking the last 23 years here, he is the author whom I’ve read the largest number of books by. The author has always been a voracious reader and book purchaser and he’s certainly done the groundwork for us here.Ĭhristopher Fowler need not have any real fears of being forgotten, certainly not by me. It’s a fascinating, highly readable book which is both illuminating and nostalgic. Novelist Christopher Fowler briefly examines the careers of 99 authors, who either used to be big but have faded from prominence or who deserved to be more popular than they were. It is for book lovers, and is written by one who could not be a more enthusiastic, enlightening and entertaining guide.Now, this is just the sort of book to throw out my reading schedule. This is a book about books and their authors. These 99 journeys are punctuated by 12 short essays about faded once-favourites: including the now-vanished novels Walt Disney brought to the screen, the contemporary rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie who did not stand the test of time, and the women who introduced us to psychological suspense many decades before it conquered the world. And Fowler, as well as remembering their careers, lifts the lid on their lives, and why they often stopped writing or disappeared from the public eye. Whether male or female, domestic or international, flash-in-the-pan or prolific, mega-seller or prize-winner – no author, it seems, can ever be fully immune from the fate of being forgotten. So begins Christopher Fowler’s foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from our shelves.

SHOULD BE READ BY ANYONE WHO LOVES BOOKS’ EVENING STANDARDĪbsence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder.

‘THE PERFECT GIFT FOR A BOOK-OBSESSED FRIEND’ STYLIST, 50 UNMISSABLE BOOKS FOR AUTUMN 2017 ‘A GODSEND WITH THE PRESENT SEASON APPROACHING’ IRISH INDEPENDENT READERS WILL LOVE THIS FASCINATING BOOK’ CATHY RENTZENBRINK

The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler