48 Facts About Anthony Horowitz

Anthony John Horowitz was born on 5 April 1955 and is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense.

The estate of James Bond creator Ian Fleming chose Anthony Horowitz to write Bond novels utilising unpublished material by Fleming, starting with Trigger Mortis in 2015, followed by Forever and a Day in 2018, and a third and final novel With a Mind to Kill in May 2022.

Anthony Horowitz has written for television, contributing scripts to ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot and adapting six early episodes of Midsomer Murders from the novels of Caroline Graham, including the first three episodes.

Anthony Horowitz was the creator and writer of the ITV series Foyle's War, Collision and Injustice, and the BBC series Crime Traveller and New Blood.

Anthony Horowitz was born in Stanmore, Middlesex, into a Jewish family, and in his early years lived an upper middle class lifestyle.

Anthony Horowitz had a stuffed monkey named Benjamin.

Anthony Horowitz started writing at the age of eight or nine and he instantly knew he would be a professional writer.

Anthony Horowitz graduated from the University of York with a lower second class degree in English literature and art history in 1977, where he was in Vanbrugh College.

Anthony Horowitz gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday.

Anthony 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.

Anthony Horowitz's father was associated with some of the politicians in the "circle" of prime minister Harold Wilson, including Eric Miller.

Anthony Horowitz died from cancer when Horowitz was 22, and the family was never able to track down the missing money despite years of trying.

Anthony Horowitz's first book, The Sinister Secret of Frederick K Bower, was a humorous adventure for children that was published in 1979 and later reissued as Enter Frederick K Bower in 1985.

Anthony Horowitz was involved in writing scripts for the cult 1980s television series Robin of Sherwood and a novelisation, The Hooded Man.

Some similarities have been noted between this book and J K Rowling's later Harry Potter series, but Anthony Horowitz did not choose to take action because of this.

In 2021, Anthony Horowitz revealed to a fan on Twitter that he had plans to write a third book, but was dissuaded after the success of the Harry Potter series.

Some time before the new millennium, Anthony Horowitz attempted to reach out to an adult audience with a novel called Poisoned Pen.

Anthony Horowitz began his most famous and successful series in the new millennium with the Alex Rider novels.

Anthony Horowitz had stated that Scorpia Rising was to be the last book in the Alex Rider series prior to writing Russian Roulette about the life of Yassen Gregorovich, but he has returned to the series with Never Say Die, Nightshade and Nightshade Revenge.

In 2003, Anthony Horowitz wrote three novellas featuring the Diamond Brothers: The Blurred Man, The French Confection and I Know What You Did Last Wednesday, which were republished together as Three of Diamonds in 2004.

The author information page in early editions of Scorpia and the introduction to Three of Diamonds claimed that Anthony Horowitz had travelled to Australia to research a new Diamond Brothers book, entitled Radius of the Lost Shark.

Anthony 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 the NHS.

One of the short stories in More Bloody Anthony Horowitz is notable for serving as Anthony Horowitz's opportunity to get even with fellow author Darren O'Shaughnessy, more commonly known as Darren Shan.

In 2004, Anthony Horowitz again attempted to branch out to an adult audience with The 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, Anthony Horowitz returned to young adult fiction by releasing a book called Raven's Gate which began a second successful series entitled The Power of Five.

Anthony Horowitz describes this series as "Alex Rider with devils and witches".

On 19 January 2011, the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle announced that Anthony 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 entitled The House of Silk.

In October 2014, the estate of Ian Fleming commissioned Anthony Horowitz to write a James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis, which was released in 2015.

Anthony Horowitz is the only author in recent years to have been invited by Ian Fleming Publications to write successive, official James Bond novels.

Anthony Horowitz finally finished it in late 2015, and it was published in October 2016.

In 2017, Anthony 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 Anthony Horowitz accompanies Hawthorne as he investigates murders committed in London and other locations.

In 2011, Anthony Horowitz tweeted that he had plans to write a new trilogy for the same demographic as his Alex Rider and Power of Five books, but that it's still "a secret".

However, Anthony Horowitz revealed in 2021 that he has yet to begin writing this series and that he has no immediate plans to do so.

Anthony Horowitz wrote the screenplay for Just Ask for Diamond, a 1989 film adaptation of his Diamond Brothers novel The Falcon's Malteser that had an all-star cast which included Bill Paterson, Jimmy Nail, Roy Kinnear, Susannah York, Michael Robbins and Patricia Hodge, and featured Colin Dale and Dursley McLinden as Nick and Tim Diamond respectively.

Anthony Horowitz is the writer of a feature film screenplay, The Gathering, which was released in 2003 and starred Christina Ricci.

Anthony Horowitz wrote the screenplay for Alex Rider's first major motion picture, Stormbreaker.

Anthony Horowitz began writing for television in the 1980s, contributing to the children's anthology series Dramarama, and writing five episodes of the third season for the popular fantasy series Robin of Sherwood.

Anthony Horowitz novelised three of Carpenter's episodes as a children's book under the title Robin of Sherwood: The Hooded Man.

In 1991, The Diamond Brothers, a six-part television series written and directed by Anthony Horowitz himself, was broadcast on ITV.

The series is based on the book South by South East, which Anthony Horowitz claimed he wrote after he had written the television series, effectively making South by South East a novelisation of the television series rather than the novel acting as the primary source of inspiration.

Anthony Horowitz created two short-lived science-fiction shows, Crime Traveller for BBC One and The Vanishing Man for ITV.

In 2002, Anthony Horowitz created the series Foyle's War, a historically-themed detective series set during and after the Second World War.

Green produced Foyle's War, the series Anthony Horowitz wrote for ITV, and other television shows he has written.

Anthony Horowitz is a patron of family support charity Home-Start in Suffolk and child protection charity Kidscape.

Anthony Horowitz was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2014 New Year Honours and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2022 New Year Honours, both for services to literature.

Anthony Horowitz won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Television Episode Teleplay from Episode 1 of Magpie Murders.

Anthony Horowitz has won Lancashire Book of the Year in 2006.