Anthony Horowitz, my hero.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

“A commercial break! Quick! Kill someone!”

Anthony Horowitz, the creator of Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War, Alex Rider and most importantly a scene in which two people have sex in a ball pit in (my personal favourite of his books) The Killing Joke. This evening I attended a talk by him (about his work and general awesomeness) at the Lincoln Drill Hall and somewhat drove my friends mad with my fangirlish nonsense. (Though all “nonsense” aside I would happy marry that handsome devil and his smooth tones and wonderful authorish skills.)

He started out talking about good old Alex Rider, the 14 year old spy who got him where he is now. Horowitz told us how he partially owes the success of the children’s series to J K Rowling. Without the Harry Potter franchise publishers would have never realised how popular children’s books could be.

In a Lincoln exclusive (that somewhat made my belly fizz) Horowitz read out the first page of the next and final book in the Alex Rider series. We follow the head of criminal organisation SCORPIA through the British Museum on his way to meet “the third richest man in the world”. Horowitz also told us how an old enemy was set to return. Now personally I was hoping that my darling wonderful (fictional) Russian assassin Yassen Gregorovich would miraculously return from the dead after being shot at the end of the fourth book. But a) Horowitz has now promised a sort of prequel in which we see Yassen at Alex’s age and b) the series isn’t suited to random resurrecting a beloved character. I intend to re-read the entire series over the summer in order to dejuce the mysterious returning foe. Because I’m just that much of a dork. smiles proudly

Good old (yet still remarkably dashing) Anthony went on to talk about his work in television, notably Foyle’s War and Collision. Now I’ve never seen either of these as I’m cough cough allergic to ITV though I may contemplate purchasing the DVDs. Horowitz’s take on the murder mystery genre and the curse of commercial breaks was somewhat amusing (if it wasn’t obvious please see the title of this post).

In the end this talk filled me not only with fangirlish glee but also with a few nifty facts about my favourte author. But mainly fangirlish glee… and a signed copy of my favourite Horowitz which is now my most prized possession.

Thank you Mr Horowitz, for such a delightful evening.