Anthony Horowitz

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2006

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kirsty Young's first castaway of 2007 is the writer Anthony Horowitz. He's a prolific author. His first novel was published when he was 23 and, as well as a series of children's books featuring the 'super spy' Alex Rider, he's also penned a slew of television crime programmes including Murder Most Horrid, Midsomer Murders and Foyle's Law. He first turned to writing when he was at boarding school; he was desperately unhappy and it offered some form of escape. His childhood was peopled by Dickensian figures - although he was brought up in lavish surroundings, his parents were distant and he was brought up by a string of nannies, while he so hated his domineering grandmother that he literally danced on her grave after her death.

Perhaps it is unsurprising that his books often deal with the fragility of childhood and the robustness of children. A father now himself, he says he envies his own children their confidence and happiness. He says that he doesn't consider his work great, or even important - but he does like to think it agreeable and surprising.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: She's Always A Woman by Billy Joel Book: A large French dictionary Luxury: Fountain pen, ink and paper

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2006. My castaway this week is one of Britain's foremost TV dramatists and children's writers Anthony Horowitz.
0:35.2	His prodigious output ranges from his numerous TV-Hudunets, including Poirot-S,
0:39.5	Midsummer Murders and Foyles War, to a slew of novels, most notably the Alex Rider series about murders and
0:43.4	the Alex Ryder series about a 14-year-old secret agent.
0:46.6	His approach is cheerfully populist.
0:49.6	His last book knocked Harry Potter off the number one spot in the children's bestseller list,
0:54.7	and he says his purpose is to entertain.
0:58.0	But the breadth of his appeal masks how for him writing has always been an intensely private pursuit. After surviving a desperately unhappy
1:05.6	childhood it was he claims only through writing that he found himself. What was it about
1:11.5	writing that unlocked your sense of self-Antony?
1:15.0	Well, my child wasn't entirely unhappy.
1:17.2	I mean, I saw this feel a bit embarrassed,
1:19.2	you know, having been brought up by such wealthy parents and given such a good education to claim an unhappy
1:24.0	childhood although every kid's writer does need one.
1:27.0	What was unhappy for me was a school I was sent to Wally Farm where I was sent in 1963 which
1:31.0	was very cold and very difficult for me and it was at that time
1:34.9	between ages 8 to 13 that I discovered books and the library and telling stories
1:39.9	and discovered that I was only really going to be happy when I had a pen in my hand or a book in my hand and so it really was a great escape for me.
1:48.0	Fascinating that you say that every writer needs one. Why does every writer need an unhappy, at least an unhappy part of their childhood?
1:54.4	Well I think that all writing does come out of tension to a certain extent and certainly
	...

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