Anthony Horowitz | |
|---|---|
 Horowitz in 2022 | |
| Born | Anthony John Horowitz (1955-04-05)5 April 1955 (age 70)[1] Stanmore, Middlesex, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, screenwriter, children's author & adult author |
| Alma mater | University of York |
| Genre | Adventure, mystery, thriller, horror, fantasy |
| Notable works | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| anthonyhorowitz | |
Anthony John HorowitzCBE (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include theAlex Rider series featuring a 14-year-old British boy who spies forMI6,The Power of Five series (known asThe Gatekeepers in the US), andThe Diamond Brothers series.
Horowitz's works for adults include: the playMindgame (2001); twoSherlock Holmes novels,The House of Silk (2011) andMoriarty (2014); two novels featuring his own detective Susan Ryeland,Magpie Murders (2016) andMoonflower Murders (2020); five novels featuring a fictionalised version of himself as a companion and chronicler to private investigator Daniel Hawthorne:The Word Is Murder (2017),The Sentence Is Death (2018),A Line to Kill (2021),The Twist of a Knife (2022), andClose to Death (2024).
The estate ofJames Bond creatorIan Fleming chose Horowitz to write Bond novels utilising unpublished material by Fleming, starting withTrigger Mortis in 2015, followed byForever and a Day in 2018, and a third and final novelWith a Mind to Kill in May 2022.
Horowitz has also written for television, contributing scripts toITV'sAgatha Christie's Poirot and adapting six early episodes ofMidsomer Murders from the novels ofCaroline Graham, including the first three episodes. He was the creator and writer of the ITV seriesFoyle's War,Collision andInjustice, and theBBC seriesCrime Traveller andNew Blood.
Horowitz was born inStanmore,Middlesex, into aJewish family, and in his early years lived anupper middle class lifestyle.[2][3][4] As a child, Horowitz used to go toInstow, where his nanny took him boating on theRiver Torridge. He also had a stuffed monkey named Benjamin (which was later eaten by his dog).[5]
Horowitz attendedOrley Farm School. He started writing at the age of eight or nine and he instantly knew he would be a professional writer. This was because he was an underachiever in school and was not physically fit, and found his escape in books and telling stories. In a 2006 interview, Horowitz stated "I was quite certain, from my earliest memory, that I would be a professional writer and nothing but."[6]
At age 13 he went toRugby School, apublic school, inRugby, Warwickshire. He graduated from theUniversity of York with a lower second class degree inEnglish literature andart history in 1977, where he was inVanbrugh College.[7][8]
Horowitz's mother introduced him toFrankenstein andDracula. She gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. Horowitz said in an interview that it reminds him to get to the end of each story since he will soon look like the skull.[9]
Horowitz's father was associated with some of the politicians in the "circle" of prime ministerHarold Wilson, includingEric Miller.[10] Facing bankruptcy, he moved his assets intoSwiss numbered bank accounts. He died fromcancer when Horowitz was 22, and the family was never able to track down the missing money despite years of trying.[4] This left the family bankrupt, requiring the sale of the large family home.[11]
Anthony Horowitz's first book,The Sinister Secret of Frederick K Bower, was a humorous adventure for children that was published in 1979[12] and later reissued asEnter Frederick K Bower in 1985. In 1981 his second novel,Misha, the Magician and the Mysterious Amulet was published and he moved to Paris to write his third book.[13]
In 1983, the first novel in the Pentagram series was released. EntitledThe Devil's Door-Bell, the story saw thirteen-year-old Martin Hopkins trying to adjust to a new life with a foster mother on a Yorkshire farm, but it quickly becomes a nightmare when he ends up having to battle an ancient evil that threatens the whole world. Only three of the four remaining novels in the series were ever released:The Night of the Scorpion (1984),The Silver Citadel (1986) andDay of the Dragon (1986).
In 1985, he releasedMyths and Legends, a collection of retold tales from around the world. He was also involved in writing scripts for the cult 1980s television seriesRobin of Sherwood and the spin-off novel.
In 1988,Groosham Grange was published. Its central character is a thirteen-year-old "witch", David Eliot, gifted as theseventh son of a seventh son. This book went on to win the 1989Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award.[14] Some similarities have been noted between this book and J K Rowling's laterHarry Potter series, but Horowitz did not choose to take action because of this.[15]
The most important release of Horowitz's early career wasThe Falcon's Malteser (1986). This book was the first in the successfulDiamond Brothers series, and was followed in 1987 byPublic Enemy Number Two, and bySouth by South East in 1991.
Horowitz wrote many stand-alone novels in the 1990s. His 1994 novelGranny, a comedy thriller about an evil grandmother, was Horowitz's first book in three years, and it was the first of three books for an audience similar to that ofGroosham Grange. The second of these wasThe Switch, a body swap story, first published in 1996. The third was 1997'sThe Devil and His Boy, which is set in theElizabethan era and explores the rumour ofElizabeth I's secret son.
In 1999,The Unholy Grail was published as a sequel toGroosham Grange. It was later renamedReturn to Groosham Grange in 2003, possibly to help young readers understand the connection between the two books. In 2021, Horowitz revealed to a fan onTwitter that he had plans to write a third book, but was dissuaded after the success of theHarry Potter series.[16] In the same year, Horowitz published a collection of several short horror stories aimed for children and young adults, entitledHorowitz Horror (1999). This was an opportunity for Horowitz to further explore a darker side of his writing.
Some time before thenew millennium, Horowitz attempted to reach out to an adult audience with a novel calledPoisoned Pen. The novel is based around Martin Holland, who is a childhood friend of a 21st century incarnation ofWilliam Shakespeare. In the novel, William Shakespeare is reimagined as a Hollywood screenwriter who is murdered in a set of circumstances that Martin Holland finds rather odd, despite attempts from aLos Angeles detective to dissuade him. The novel follows Martin's attempts to solve the ever-growing mystery through a series of rather unusual circumstances and a number of people who seem rather glad that Shakespeare was murdered. The novel has never been published in theUK or even inEnglish, but copies inSpanish andDutch have been released (retitled asEl asesinato de Shakespeare andWilliam S. respectively).[17] As of June 2021, despite Horowitz's recent successes in adult literature, there are no plans to get the novel republished.
Horowitz began his most famous and successful series in thenew millennium with theAlex Rider novels. These books are about a 14-year-old boy becoming aspy, a member of the British Secret Service branch MI6. As of 2024, there are eleven books where Alex Rider is the protagonist, and another connected to the Alex Rider series:Stormbreaker (2000),Point Blanc (2001),Skeleton Key (2002),Eagle Strike (2003),Scorpia (2004)Ark Angel (2005),Snakehead (2007),Crocodile Tears (2009),Scorpia Rising (2011), plusRussian Roulette (2013).[18] Horowitz had stated thatScorpia Rising was to be the last book in the Alex Rider series prior to writingRussian Roulette about the life ofYassen Gregorovich,[19] but he has returned to the series withNever Say Die (2017),Nightshade (2020) andNightshade Revenge (2023).
In 2003, Horowitz also wrote three novellas featuring the Diamond Brothers:The Blurred Man,The French Confection andI Know What You Did Last Wednesday, which were republished together asThree of Diamonds in 2004. The author information page in early editions ofScorpia and the introduction toThree of Diamonds claimed that Horowitz had travelled to Australia to research a new Diamond Brothers book, entitledRadius of the Lost Shark. This claim was further backed up when a new Diamond Brothers novella entitledThe Greek who Stole Christmas! was released in 2007, where it is hinted at the end thatRadius of the Lost Shark may turn out to be the eighth entry in the series.[20] However, the next novel in the series was instead calledWhere Seagulls Dare, and is unrelated to the Australian-based adventure that was previously announced. Horowitz published the first six chapters unedited on his website throughout 2020, and the full, edited novel was published in 2022, with all profits going to support theNHS.[21]
Horowitz also published two sequels to his short horror story collection;More Horowitz Horror (2000) andMore Bloody Horowitz (2009). Many of the stories inHorowitz Horror andMore Horowitz Horror were later repackaged in twos or threes as thePocket Horowitz series, whileMore Bloody Horowitz was later reissued asScared to Death. One of the short stories inMore Bloody Horowitz is notable for serving as Horowitz's opportunity to get even with fellow authorDarren O'Shaughnessy, more commonly known as Darren Shan. In 2008, the pair had gotten into a joke dispute over O'Shaughnessy's use of Horowitz's name for an objectionable character (Antoine Horwitzer) inWolf Island.[22] In retaliation, Horowitz chose to plot a gruesome literary revenge in the short storyThe Man Who Killed Darren Shan.[23]
In 2004, Horowitz again attempted to branch out to an adult audience withThe Killing Joke, a comedy about a man who tries to track a joke to its source with disastrous consequences. The book was not very successful, and in August 2005, Horowitz returned to young adult fiction by releasing a book calledRaven's Gate which began a second successful series entitledThe Power of Five (The Gatekeepers in the United States). Based heavily on one of his earlier novels entitledThe Devil's Door-Bell, each of the first four entries ofThe Power of Five subsequently ended up being a rewritten and expanded version of their respective counterpart from thePentagram series. The second book in the series,Evil Star (based onThe Night of the Scorpion), was released in April 2006. The third in the series is calledNightrise (based onThe Silver Citadel), and was released on 2 April 2007. The fourth bookNecropolis (based onDay of the Dragon) was released in October 2008. The fifth and final book, the only one not based on an earlierPentagram novel, was released in October 2012 and is calledOblivion. Horowitz describes this series as "Alex Rider with devils and witches".[24]
In October 2008, Anthony Horowitz's playMindgame opened Off Broadway at theSoHo Playhouse in New York City.[25]Mindgame starredKeith Carradine, Lee Godart, and Kathleen McNenny. The production was the New York stage directorial debut forKen Russell.
In March 2009 he was a guest onPrivate Passions, the biographical music discussion programme onBBC Radio 3.[26]
On 19 January 2011, the estate ofArthur Conan Doyle announced that Horowitz was to be the writer of a new Sherlock Holmes novel, the first such effort to receive an official endorsement from them and to be entitledThe House of Silk. It was both published,[27][28] in November of 2011 and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.[29] A follow-up novel,Moriarty, was published in 2014.
In October 2014, the estate ofIan Fleming commissioned Horowitz to write aJames Bond novel,Trigger Mortis, which was released in 2015. It was followed by a second novel,Forever[30]and A Day, which came out on 31 May 2018.[31] A third novel entitledWith a Mind to Kill was released on 17 May 2022.[32] Horowitz is the only author in recent years to have been invited byIan Fleming Publications to write successive, official James Bond novels.
In 2016, Horowitz's adult novelMagpie Murders was published. Having previously spoken about the book in 2005, it was initially described as being about "a whodunit writer who is murdered while he's writing his latest whodunit".[33] Horowitz finally finished it in late 2015,[34] and it was published in October 2016.[35] A follow-up novel,Moonflower Murders, was released in 2020. A third and final novel in the series, Marble Hall Murders is expected to be released in April 2025.[36]
In 2017, Horowitz began a new series of detective novels which includes himself as a novelist enlisted by an out-of-work detective called Hawthorne to write books about the way Hawthorne solves crimes. The fictional Horowitz accompanies Hawthorne as he investigates murders committed in London and other locations. So far, starting withThe Word is Murder, five of these books have appeared, with three others commissioned.
In 2011, Horowitz tweeted that he had plans to write a new trilogy for the same demographic as hisAlex Rider andPower of Five books, but that it's still "a secret".[37] During 2012 and 2013, Horowitz tweeted out some more information regarding the series, where he stated that it will be "a completely new genre" from anything else he'd done so far,[38] and that it will have a contemporary setting in modern-day London with a 15-year-old protagonist. He also revealed that it's tentatively entitledThe Machine.[39] However, Horowitz revealed in 2021 that he has yet to begin writing this series and that he has no immediate plans to do so.[40]
Horowitz wrote the screenplay forJust Ask for Diamond, a 1989 film adaptation of hisDiamond Brothers novelThe Falcon's Malteser that had an all-star cast which includedBill Paterson,Jimmy Nail,Roy Kinnear,Susannah York,Michael Robbins andPatricia Hodge, and featured Colin Dale andDursley McLinden as Nick and Tim Diamond respectively.
Horowitz is the writer of a feature film screenplay,The Gathering, which was released in 2003 and starredChristina Ricci.
He wrote the screenplay for Alex Rider's first major motion picture,Stormbreaker.
Horowitz began writing for television in the 1980s, contributing to the children's anthology seriesDramarama, and also writing five episodes of the third season for the popular fantasy seriesRobin of Sherwood. He also novelised three of Carpenter's episodes as a children's book under the titleRobin of Sherwood: The Hooded Man (1986).
In addition, he createdCrossbow (1987), a half-hour action adventure series loosely based onWilliam Tell. This era in Horowitz's career also saw the release ofAdventurer (1987), a thriller about a convict stuck on a prisoner ship with his sworn enemy based on the Richard Carpenter series, andStarting Out (1990), a collection of screenplays by the author himself, published.
His association with murder mysteries began with the adaptation of severalHercule Poirot stories forITV's popularAgatha Christie's Poirot series during the 1990s. Often his work has a comic edge, such as with the comic murder anthologyMurder Most Horrid (BBC Two, 1991) and the comedy-dramaThe Last Englishman (1995), starringJim Broadbent.
In 1991,The Diamond Brothers, a six-part television series written and directed by Horowitz himself, was broadcast onITV. The series is based on the bookSouth by South East, which Horowitz claimed he wrote after he had written the television series, effectively makingSouth by South East a novelisation of the television series rather than the novel acting as the primary source of inspiration. Both McLinden and Dale reprised their respective film roles, which makes the television series act as a sequel toJust Ask for Diamond.
From 1997, he wrote the majority of the episodes in the early series ofMidsomer Murders. In 2001, he created a drama anthology series of his own for the BBC,Murder in Mind, an occasional series which deals with a different set of characters and a different murder every one-hour episode.
He also created two short-livedscience-fiction shows,Crime Traveller (1997) for BBC One andThe Vanishing Man (pilot 1996, series 1998) forITV. WhileCrime Traveller received favourable viewing figures it was not renewed for a second season, which Horowitz accounts to temporary personnel transitioning within the BBC.
In 2002, Horowitz created the seriesFoyle's War, a historically-themed detective series set during and after theSecond World War. The series became the longest-running among Horowitz's television projects, with a total of 28 episodes broadcast over eight series between 2002 and 2015.
Horowitz devised the 2009 ITV crime dramaCollision and co-wrote the screenplay withMichael A. Walker.
Horowitz adapted his novelMagpie Murders into a television miniseries, which aired onBritBox and laterBBC One in the UK and on thePBS seriesMasterpieceMystery! in the US.[41]
Filming commenced on theCanary Islands in the spring of 2024 on his television seriesNine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue.[42]
Horowitz lives in Central London (Clerkenwell) with his wife Jill Green;[11] they eloped to be married inHong Kong on 15 April 1988.[43] Green producedFoyle's War, the series Horowitz wrote forITV, and other television shows he has written.[44] They have two sons.
Horowitz credits his family with much of his success in writing, as he says they help him with ideas and research. He is a patron of family support charity Home-Start in Suffolk and child protection charityKidscape.[45]
Politically, Horowitz has described himself to be "vaguelyconservative".[46] Ahead of the2010 United Kingdom general election, Horowitz stated he would vote for theConservative Party in response to the policies of the governingLabour Party, but "with little enthusiasm."[47] In 2017, Horowitz expressed criticism of the notion ofcultural appropriation after a publisher had allegedly tried to dissuade him from creating a black character as a central figure in one of his novels, and supported fellow authorLionel Shriver's critiques on the same issue. He also criticised the social phenomenon ofcancel culture and "mobbing" of figures for expressing diverse opinions, stating, "There is a rigidity in the way we have begun to think and speak. If we step outside certain lines on certain issues, we find not just people disagreeing, but disagreeing to the extent of death threats. When somebody says something untoward in the press, and I am not saying this about myself, people don't just say that was a stupid thing to say. They say,Lose your job. They want you to never ever have an income again."[11][48]
Horowitz was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2014 New Year Honours[49] andCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2022 New Year Honours,[50][51] both for services to literature. He won anEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Television Episode Teleplay from Episode 1 ofMagpie Murders.[52] In 2003, he wonHampshire Book Award for the book,Skeleton Key, part ofAlex Rider, whilst getting a nomination in 2007.[53] He has also wonLancashire Book of the Year in 2006. ForFoyle's War, there was aBAFTA Lew Grade Award in 2003 with an additional two nominations for Best Drama Series and Best Production Design won,[54] and he got nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 2016 for the episode: Elise, The Final Mystery.[55] In 2005, Anthony Horowitz, forStormbreaker, received aCalifornia Young Reader Medal,Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award (2004), Utah Beehive Award (2004), Wisconsin Golden Archer Award (2003),California Young Reader Medal (2005), Iowa Teen Award (2005), South Carolina Junior Book Award (2005).[56][57][58]
Film writer
TV series
| Year | Title | Writer | Executive Producer | Creator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Robin of Sherwood | Yes | No | No | 5 episodes |
| 1987 | Boon | Yes | No | No | |
| 1987-1988 | Crossbow | Yes | No | Yes | 12 episodes |
| 1989 | Dramarama | Yes | No | No | Episode "Back to Front" |
| 1989–1991 | Grim Tales | Yes | No | No | |
| 1991–2001 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Yes | No | No | 11 episodes |
| 1995 | Chiller | Yes | No | No | 2 episodes |
| 1996 | Murder Most Horrid | Yes | No | No | 1 episode |
| 1997–2000 | Midsomer Murders | Yes | No | Yes | 6 episodes |
| 1997 | Crime Traveller | No | No | Yes | 8 episodes |
| 2001–2003 | Murder in Mind | No | No | Yes | 7 episodes |
| 2002–2015 | Foyle's War | Yes | Yes | Yes | 25 episodes |
| 2016 | New Blood | No | No | Yes | 7 episodes |
| 2020–2024 | Alex Rider | No | Yes | No | 24 episodes |
| 2022 | Magpie Murders | Yes | Yes | Yes | 6 episodes |
| 2024 | Moonflower Murders | Yes | No | Yes | 6 episodes |
| 2024 | Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue | Yes | Yes | Yes | 6 episodes |
Miniseries
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Creator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | The Diamond Brothers | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2009 | Collision | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2011 | Injustice | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Year | Title | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Mindgame | Playwright | Performed 1999, published 2000 |
| 2009 | A Handbag | Playwright | Performed as part of the National Theatre Connections festival |
| 2015 | Dinner with Saddam | Playwright |
(Anthony Horowitz) CIP data sheet (b. April 5, 1955)
