Whether it is Arthur Conan Doyle’s clever, superhuman Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie’s fussy Belgian Hercule Poirot, or the uber cool James Bond, a good murder mystery or spy novel leaves us on the edge of our seats. And what happens if the spy is a 14-year-old, working with the British Secret Service M16? Anyone who has read the Alex Rider series will tell you that it is just double the fun.
But how much do you know about its author Anthony Horowitz?
British screenwriter and children’s author Horowitz solves crimes from a tiny shed in his garden. The author of the bestselling series weaves an intriguing mystery with his pen and then looks for clues and red herrings that will help readers identify the culprit. His shed is filled with all kinds of knick-knacks, including a bust of Tintin, to inspire his writing, and once he gets started, Horowitz can complete writing a novel in less than three months!
Early pick
Horowitz was an underachiever in school. Instead, he found solace in books and telling stories. He spent hours reading in his father’s library and entertaining his classmates by narrating the stories he read. By the time Horowitz turned eight he had found his calling. He began writing his own stories and knew he wanted to become a writer when he grew up. He even asked his father to gift him a typewriter for his eighth birthday. At 13, his mother introduced him to the stories of Frankenstein and Dracula. She gifted him a skull for his birthday, and Horowitz still looks at it every now and then. It motivates him to keep writing.
Though he graduated from the University of York with a lower second class degree in English literature, Horowitz tasted success early on. He was 22 when his first book, The Sinister Secret of Frederick K Bower, a humorous adventure for children, was published in 1979. It was later issued as Enter Frederick K Bower. In 1981, his second novel, Misha, the Magician and the Mysterious Amulet, was published and he moved to Paris to write his third book.
Alex Rider
The Alex Rider series was born out of Horowitz’s love for the sophisticated British spy, James Bond. Growing up Horowitz eagerly followed all the Bond books and films. After becoming a successful writer, Horowitz wondered whether he could reinvent the Bond films from the perspective of a 14-year-old. Since the publication of the first Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker in 2000, the series has become a huge hit. It has been translated into about 40 languages.
Other works
Over the years Horowitz has written 50-plus novels, besides Poirot and Midsomer Murders, detective series for television. He was commissioned by the Conan Doyle Estate to write new novel featuring the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. And the result: The House of Silk (2011) and Moriatry (2014). He has also written two official James Bond novels, Trigger Mortis (2015) and Forever and a Day (2018) following a commission by the Ian Fleming Estate. Horowitz’s latest novels The Word Is Murder and The Sentence Is Death features himself as a writer following Hawthorne, a sharp, brooding detective as he sets about solving crimes.
Pet peeves
From going underground at Wimbledon for Skeleton Key and potholing in Yorkshire for The Sentence is Death to driving a crane for Point Blanc, Horowitz meticulously researches every last detail for his books. For his novel Snakehead, he spent time at an oil rig in Aberdeen; explored Bangkok and the Outback in Australia. He even picked up kickboxing in Thailand.
One of Horowitz’s greatest fears, strangely enough, is dropping dead in the middle of a novel. He’s so afraid of this that he actually leaves behind detailed notes about how to finish the book when he starts writing a new novel, because he can’t imagine anyone unravelling the mystery without his help.
After writing 50 novels, there’s still a lot more to come from this polymath.
And we can’t wait to read more about the adventures of Alex Rider!
Picture Credit : Google
