The Creator

Anthony Horowitz

As a child

Born in north London, Anthony says, “I think I knew with certainty that I wanted to be a writer around eight.” For birthdays, he asked for books, pens and a typewriter. His schooldays were not especially happy, more like something “out of Dickens or Dahl”, and one reason he began writing books for young people was “to make up for the shortcomings of my childhood”.

As an adult

Anthony lives in London with his wife Jill Green, a TV producer, and their sons Nicholas and Cassian. His whole family gets involved in his writing. Jill has produced several of Anthony’s scripts; his son Cassian is already a seasoned actor, having appeared in several of his shows; and Nicholas, his oldest son, has helped Anthony to research the Alex Rider books by trying his hand at everything from scuba-diving to snowboarding and surfing!

As a writer

Anthony’s first novel was published in 1979 when he was just 23. He has since written many more and is also a prolific writer for television, film and theatre. He created the popular television series Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders. Anthony’s phenomenal Alex Rider series has delighted children all over the world, winning numerous prizes including the 2006 BBA Children’s Book of the Year Award for Ark Angel and the 2003 Red House Children’s Book Award for Skeleton Key. Stormbreaker, the very first Alex Rider adventure, was made into an action-packed movie, released in cinemas and on DVD in 2006.

From Alex Rider to the Power of Five: Anthony Horowitz on teenage heroes

“The heroes of my books never have parents because I’ve always believed it’s impossible to have fun or adventure while your parents are around. What interests me is to take a young person – usually thirteen or fourteen years old – and to throw them headlong into an adult world where they are forced to rely on their own abilities. Alex Rider’s guardian dies and he finds himself sucked into the world of MI6, trained as a reluctant spy. And in the first volume of The Power of Five saga, Raven’s Gate, fourteen-year-old Matt Freeman is arrested as a delinquent and sent on his own to a weird village in Yorkshire. The two boys couldn’t be more different. For a start, Matt has paranormal abilities (even if he can’t control them) and he’s up against devils, witches and black magic. He lives in a provincial town. And at the start of the book he’s even more of a loner than Alex. He doesn’t seem to have any friends. But they also have a lot of similarities. First of all, it’s them versus everyone else. Although I hope their adventures are fun to read, they’re certainly not a lot of fun for them. They get hurt and nearly killed. And the whole future of the world depends on them.

At the end of the day, I suppose that’s why I write children’s books. You look at what’s happening today and you see that adults are always mucking everything up. The next generation, children, really are our only hope.”

Ten things you didn’t know about Anthony Horowitz

1. Anthony began writing because he wanted to be like Tintin.
2. He has travelled to all the places in the Tintin books (except the moon).
3. Snatchmore Hall (in The Switch) is based on the house where Anthony lived as a child. He had a nanny, two cooks, two gardeners, a chauffeur ... and he hated it!
4. He was sent to a revolting boarding school, Orley Farm, in north London. The headmaster and his wife featured by name in one of his TV episodes. He depicted them as mad Nazis!
5. He takes research for his books seriously. He has walked across the Andes and visited the Forbidden City in Hong Kong. For Evil Star, he visited the Nazca Lines in Peru and in the Alex Rider adventure Point Blanc, he climbed – and operated – a 150m crane opposite the Houses of Parliament.
6. He got married in Hong Kong. He didn’t understand the ceremony because it was in Chinese.
7. He spent a year working as a cowboy in Australia. This was for fun – not for a book.
8. His passion is scuba-diving. He has dived all over the world, including Sipadan in the South China Sea, where he saw hammer head sharks.
9. He has a chocolate-coloured Labrador called Lucky. Lucky by name, but not by nature – the dog has been run over three times!
10. He is a major film fan and goes to the cinema three or four times a week. His favourite film is The Third Man. He is also a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s mysteries.

Links

Keep up to date with the creator of the Power of Five series
www.anthonyhorowitz.com

Find out all there is to know about teenage spy Alex Rider
www.alexrider.com

Information on other books by Anthony Horowitz
www.walkerbooks.co.uk