Anthony Horowitz
Simon Mayo's Books of the Year
Bauer Media
4.8 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bestselling author and Screenwriter - Anthony Horowitz - joins Simon and Matt for a natter about his new 'Hawthorne' novel.
They chat about his meta approach to having himself as a character in his books, his dislike when readers guess his endings and twists - and why his writing is getting funnier.
Anthony also talks positively and optimistically about the future of books and reading - and whilst no dragons are going to appear in any of his novels anytime soon - he loves the fact Romantasy is getting people into reading (and into the charts)
Here's a little more on Anthony's new novel, 'A Deadly Episode':
How do you investigate your own murder…?
The good news is that The Word is Murder, the first book in the Hawthorne series, is being turned into a major feature film.
The bad news is that the director is pretentious, the two stars hate each other, and the producer has run out of money.
And things are about to get much worse.
In the middle of shooting, the actor playing Hawthorne is stabbed – which leaves the real Hawthorne with no choice. He has to step in and investigate his own murder.
Because the killer may not have got the right man. Was it Hawthorne himself who was meant to be the target?
Transcript
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| 1:06.2 | Thank you. For T's and Seas, visit Virgin Atlantic.com. At all protected. Hello and welcome to another podcast from Books of the Year, a podcast about books that comes out once a year. |
| 1:13.1 | It doesn't, it sort of comes out a little bit more frequently than that. |
| 1:16.5 | Thank heavens for that. |
| 1:17.9 | Yes, yes. |
| 1:18.6 | We're going to be talking to Anthony Horowitz on the show today, so standby for Anthony. |
| 1:23.2 | Ruth is sent in an email, Dear Memoir and Autobiography. |
| 1:27.3 | I heard you read, which they're kind of the same. |
| 1:31.8 | One of them, yes, I think. |
... |
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