Anthony Horowitz
- Name: Anthony Horowitz
- Born: Stanmore, Middlesex
- Started Writing: Aged 8
- Attended: Rugby School and University of York
- First book:Enter Frederick K. Bower
- Featured Title: Howoritz Horror Collection
It was my grandmother who gave me the best advice about scary stories. "They should never be too unpleasant," she said. "They shouldn't have too much blood in them. It's much better to leave things to the reader's imagination."
I don't know how she could be so sure about this as she had never written, or even read, a book in her life. I also wondered what she was doing in my office in the middle of the night, leaning over me and staring at my computer screen, her hand resting on my shoulder. I glanced down and noticed her fingers which were long and yellow, the skin so withered that I could make out the bones which knocked and snagged at each other underneath. Her nails were thick and grew with no particular shape. She was wearing her diamond wedding ring but the diamond wouldn't glimmer. It was dark, like her eyes.
"Real horror should surprise you," she said, and I felt her breath on the back of my neck and smelled that familiar smell of lavender water and tooth decay. I shuddered and it occurred to me right then that perhaps she might after all know something about scary stories because - how could I have forgotten? - she had been dead for seven years.
I turned round. She had gone. I took a deep breath and wrote this.
Anthony Horowitz was born in Stanmore, Middlesex, England, into a Jewish family. He has described his father, a businessman, as a "fixer for Harold Wilson" and as a very secretive man. Facing bankruptcy, Horowitz's father removed his wealth from his Zürich bank accounts, hiding it away under a false name. He then died, leaving his wife searching for but never finding the money. In 1963, at the age of eight, Horowitz was sent to a boarding school (Orley Farm in Harrow, London) where his childhood unhappiness intensified. He recalls the headmaster of the school "flogging the boys until they bled". The memories have never left him. Horowitz later attended Rugby School and the University of York.
Anthony now lives in North London with his wife Jill Green, whom he married in Hong Kong on April 15, 1988. Green produces Foyle's War, the series Horowitz writes for ITV. They have two sons, Nicholas Mark (born 1989) and Cassian James (born 1991). He credits his family with much of his success in writing, as he says they help him with ideas and research.
