He acknowledges that she’s still mostly in print and hardly unknown, but that ‘very few readers seem to have got to grips with her novels.’ He continues by picking out the highlights of her particular style which include the ‘plum pudding principle’ – to include regular nuggets of plum amongst the supporting stodge.
This book is the next step, featuring 99 of these ‘forgotten’ authors who get two or three pages each, with a dozen slightly longer thematic essays in between.Īfter Fowler’s introduction the authors are listed alphabetically, and he begins with a slightly controversial choice in Marjory Allingham. It looks as though The Book of Forgotten Authors is an expanded version of Invisible Ink: How 100 Great Authors Disappeared, or at least that's how I interpret this enjoyable review on Shiny New Books.Ī lover of old paperbacks, Christopher Fowler eventually started writing a column for the Independent on Sunday called ‘Invisible Ink’, about forgotten authors, and it was a big success. Mod Christopher Fowler gets name checked on Neglected Books here.īack in August 2008, the Independent started publishing a series of short pieces by Christopher Fowler devoted to the subject of “forgotten authors” which finally turned into Invisible Ink: How 100 Great Authors Disappeared It is for book lovers, and is written by one who could not be a more enthusiastic, enlightening and entertaining guide. 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 psychological suspense many decades before it conquered the world. Whether male or female, 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. We are fondly introduced to each potential rediscovery: from lost Victorian voices to the twentieth century writers who could well become the next John Williams, Hans Fallada or Lionel Davidson. So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from shelves. I suspect not.Ībsence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. I am not sure if this is the same book under a different title. Mod Nigeyb wrote: "I am contractually obliged to mention Christopher Fowler's Invisible Ink: How 100 Great Authors Disappeared."Ĭhristopher Fowler has also written The Book of Forgotten Authors (2017).
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