Matt Nixson
WITH more than 50 books, many of them bestsellers, and numerous screenplays under his belt, Anthony Horowitz could be forgiven for slowing down. He turns 65 tomorrow. Yet despite his enduring success, he is driven by a deep compulsion to keep writing. Scratch the surface, and it seems only too clear where it originates.
He grew up an overweight and unhappy child in north London. His wealthy parents showed little interest in him, leaving the chauffeur and governess in charge. Straight after kindergarten he was packed off to a ghastly boarding school. Neither sporty nor especially academic, he found himself entertaining his fellow pupils with his stories after lights out. Thus was born his ambition to become a writer.
It was fulfilled early after short spells as a waiter, abattoir worker and Australian “jackaroo” cowboy, and he has been prolific, writing not only his own gripping stories, including the 21-million selling Alex Rider series for young adults, but two James Bond novels for the Ian Fleming estate, and two Sherlock Holmes books.
He also created Foyle’s War for ITV and New Blood for the BBC, and contributed scripts to, among others, Midsomer Murders. Such astonishing creativity was, he believes, born out of trauma in his early life, but Horowitz is unwilling to complain.
“I get nervous when I see wealthy and privileged people like myself talking about their sad childhood,” he explains.
“But I always say rich kids can be unhappy, too, and it’s true I had strange parents, an alienating family life and if my teachers behaved the same way now they’d be behind bars.”
SCHOOL life was “enormously destructive”, revolving around “putting you down, making you feel that you were useless, making you feel you were never going to have any success in your life”.
He was frequently beaten by drunken, sadistic masters.
Drawing breath, he continues: “No child should ever be treated that way. Every child has a talent; even when I was at that school I was beginning to tell stories and beginning to write. It was only after I began to tell stories to the other kids at night I realised this was what I loved doing.
“Suddenly, I knew I was going to be a writer.At 10 or 11, I was already designing book covers and practising my autograph! It was a very vivid dream for me at a very early age.”
For years, Horowitz made light of his experiences, instinctively feeling jokes were the best response.
Then one day, invited back to his old school as a famous writer, he found himself standing in a corridor unchanged since his time and froze.
“I’m not an emotional person, I don’t tend to have fainting fits, but I found myself palpitating and
ROLE MODEL: Ian Fleming’s 007 is basis of Horowitz’s Rider
sweating and feeling really ill. That was when I realised what was going on,” he explains. Has he sought counselling? “I’ve often been recommended therapy but I always worry; something is fuelling me. Why do I work so hard and write so much, why do I never stop, why am I always thrusting for ideas?
“The answer is there’s something inside me that’s still burning away, some kind of anger or fear, and I don’t want a therapist to remove that; to put out the fire.”
Despite delving into some of the darker recesses of the human psyche, Horowitz has tried to write uplifting, optimistic stories, especially in his young adult books.
A lifetime’s love of Ian Fleming’s 007 stories, and their films, inspired his first outing with teenage spy Alex Rider spy 20 years ago with Stormbreaker. He explains: “Alex