Comment from the book world in August 2024

‘You can offend somebody in the 21st century with something you said in 1970... By the end of the process I was questioning myself, that was the problem. I wrote innocently and I wrote to make people laugh but when I read the book through I thought, gosh really is this offensive? And that? And that? Am I all these things?

Then I began to think to myself, well how do I know I am not causing offence? And that therefore led me to the conclusion that perhaps it might be better to stick to adult books.

I am being honest with you and open. I am just saying that these are the sorts of doubts that this atmosphere raises. I have an Alex Rider out... but it's quite possible that it's just time to pull up the drawbridge and stop...'

Anthony Horowitz, who juggles writing books, TV series, films, plays and journalism and has written over 52 books, including the Alex Rider series for children, Sherlock Holmes and James Bond novels commissioned by the authors' estates and his own murder mysteries for adult readers, including Magpie Murders, in the Evening Standard.

https://anthonyhorowitz.com/