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Anthony was on BBC Radio’s Five Live show today with Richard Bacon. Topics discussed included: Midsomer Murders, Stormbreaker the movie and the possibility of sequels, Scorpia Rising – the final Alex Rider book, a new TV series penned by Anthony and the forthcoming Sherlock Holmes novel.

Please note this recording contains a news broadcast.

Anthony was on BBC Radio’s Five Live show today with Richard Bacon. Topics discussed included: Midsomer Murders, Stormbreaker the movie and the possibility of sequels, Scorpia Rising – the final Alex Rider book, a new TV series penned by Anthony and the forthcoming Sherlock Holmes novel.

Please note this recording contains a news broadcast.

Alex Rider Backpack and Tshirt

This week Walker Books have got one really cool prize to give away, an Alex Rider backpack filled with a Scorpia Rising t-shirt, plus 10 temporary tattoos and 10 Scorpia Rising postcards for you and your mates. For your chance to win this, all you have to do is email [email protected] and tell us what you would do with your extra tattoos and postcards and why…

Closing date is Friday 30th March (Terms and Conditions of entry)

The end starts here…
http://amzn.to/scorpia

Alex Rider Backpack and Tshirt

This week Walker Books have got one really cool prize to give away, an Alex Rider backpack filled with a Scorpia Rising t-shirt, plus 10 temporary tattoos and 10 Scorpia Rising postcards for you and your mates. For your chance to win this, all you have to do is email [email protected] and tell us what you would do with your extra tattoos and postcards and why…

Closing date is Friday 30th March (Terms and Conditions of entry)

The end starts here…
http://amzn.to/scorpia

The end starts here…

http://amzn.to/scorpia

When Alex embarks on his final mission in Scorpia Rising, Anthony won’t be putting his feet up and taking it easy. Read about what his next major project is, right here.

Anthony Horowitz, the BAFTA-award winning creator of Foyle’s War and author of the bestselling Alex Rider children’s series, has been chosen by the Conan Doyle Estate to write a new full length Sherlock Holmes novel which will be published by Orion in September 2011. The content of the new tale – and indeed the title – remain a closely guarded secret. The prologue is currently under lock and key at the Orion offices. The announcement of the new novel was made to the Sherlock Holmes Society on 15 January where Anthony Horowitz was the keynote speaker.

This brand new story is being written with the full endorsement of the Conan Doyle Estate; the first such time that they have given their seal of approval for a new Sherlock Holmes novel. Setting aside the numerous film and TV adaptations of the famous Baker Street detective, Anthony Horowitz has returned to the original books to produce a brilliant mystery novel, stripped back to the original style of Conan Doyle.

Anthony Horowitz says: “I fell in love with the Sherlock Holmes stories when I was sixteen and I’ve read them many times since. I simply couldn’t resist this opportunity to write a brand new adventure for this iconic figure and my aim is to produce a first rate mystery for a modern audience while remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the original”

Anthony Horowitz is a TV screen-writer and is the creator and writer of ‘Foyle’s War’, ‘Midsomer Murders’ and ‘Collison’, as well as adapting many of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot novels for the ITV series. He was awarded a BAFTA for ‘Foyle’s War’ and Foyle was recently voted ‘The People’s Detective’ in the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards, an award voted for by viewers. His new five-part drama series ‘Injustice’ will be shown on ITV1 in May. Anthony Horowitz is also the author of a string of bestselling children’s books, including the Alex Rider, The Power of Five and The Diamond Brother series. The ninth and final Alex Rider book, Scorpia Rising, is published on 31 March.

Text Content: Orion Books

http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/news/anthony-horowitz-to-write-new-sherlock-holmes-novel

Scorpia Rising - Trade Ad

Your eagle-eyed admin has been keeping close watch on the book trade press and found this ad for Scorpia Rising. The publicity machine will very soon kick into high gear for the final installment of the Alex Rider series due in March 2011.

Final cover art is not available yet but Amazon have a pre-order page with temporary cover listed:

http://amzn.to/scorpia

Stay tuned…..

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In our series Thrilled to Death, suspense writers talk with us about their work, and then recommend the books they love.

Author Anthony Horowitz loves nothing more than when a young fan asks him to sign a battered copy of a book in his Alex Rider series — young adult fiction featuring a skateboard-riding teen spy. The series’ ninth and final novel, Scorpia Rising, will be published in April 2011.

Click below to hear the interview (8 mins)

I can’t believe it’s July. I’m sure the last time I looked out of my window in Clerkenwell, it was January and there was snow on the dome of St Paul’s, pigeons shivering on my balcony, dead Christmas trees at every corner and 30% off everything in the shops including (it had been a bad year) the shopkeepers. I’ve been working so hard this year that my social life has given up the ghost and that’s sad because the ghost was my only friend. And what have I got to show for it? Well, quite a lot, now you mention it.

Let’s start with the main news. The ninth Alex Rider novel is two chapters from the end! As usual, visitors to my website are going to know more about it than anyone else – including my publishers who haven’t seen a word of it yet. So…

SCORPIA RISING starts in the British Museum in London. Then it moves to a place called the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, in the middle of the Sahara desert, where we meet Kalid Aziz Al-Kazim who is without doubt the nastiest villain I’ve ever created. He worked for Saddam Hussein when he was fourteen. He graduated to Al Qaeda. Now he’s in business for himself. There are actually three villains in this book. One of them is what you might call an old friend – brought back by popular demand. The other is a teacher at an international school in Cairo which is where Alex is sent after an assassin in London tries to…but I mustn’t give too much away.

From Egypt we go to the River Seine in Paris where our old friends, Scorpia, are having a high-level meeting. Then we’re in Gibralter. And finally – in Chapter 7 – we catch up with Alex in England. He’s fifteen in this book and you’ll see almost at once that everything has changed, particularly his relationship with Jack.

SCORPIA RISING has a very twisty plot with a lot of surprises, not all of them pleasant. A few more things… You will come across the Smithers’s last gadget and learn something about Smithers that you never knew before. You will see Alan Blunt in a completely new light. One character who has been in all eight previous books will die. The ending is fairly shocking. And when you get to the end you will be in no doubt at all that this is THE LAST ALEX RIDER BOOK EVER. (Well, I’m still going to write about Yassen and I do have one surprise up my sleeve, several years down the line – but this is the last in the series.) I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out. I think it’s the best of the lot – perhaps the best book I’ve ever written.

Oh yes – and as a way of saying sorry for taking so long to blog, I’ve done something special. The first chapter of the new book, which nobody in the world has yet read, is hidden somewhere on this site. Just follow the clues…
What else to tell you about this year?

JANUARY – I came back from Antigua where I’d been on holiday. The high point of the month was appearing on a political show on the radio called “Any Questions”. I was sick with nerves and didn’t sleep for a week. Every day I read ten newspapers and magazines. All in all it was a terrifying experience but it went well and they said they’d ask me back. I also judged a poetry competition for Fairtrade chocolate company – Divine Chocolate. They gave me so many bars of chocolate for doing this that I have been eating it ever since and have become enormously fat. Well, not enormously. But I’ve got to stop! I can’t take any more…

FEBRUARY- I was meant to go to Cairo to research the Alex Rider book but a volcano blew up somewhere and I couldn’t leave. Instead, I visited the Royal Ballet School in Richmond Park which was a lot of fun. Can you imagine being a ballet dancer at fourteen? It must be tough, particularly if you have feet like mine. But the kids I met were really nice, very talented and muc

Gadget Academy Competition

To celebrate 10 years of Alex Rider we’ve teamed up with the Young Times to set you a very special challenge.

Your help is needed to create a new gadget for Alex Rider’s 9th and last mission, Scorpia Rising. Alex Rider’s gadgets, supplied by MI6 operative Smithers, are one of the best-loved elements of Anthony Horowitz’s books and have helped him out of all sorts of scrapes. Now Walker Books and Young Times are offering readers the once-in-a-lifetime chance to design a gadget for Alex!

The winning gadget will feature in Anthony Horowitz’s 9th Alex Rider novel, out Spring 2011, and will be made into an illustration and featured in the Young Times. The winner will also receive a copy of the book and a print of their gadget design. There will be runners up prizes too of an e-reader loaded with the first three Alex Rider books and free Stormbreaker ebooks.

To find out more about the competition visit The Times website or go straight to the Alex Rider Gadget Academy www.gadgetacademy.co.uk to submit your entry. Grab your copy of The Times today and you can also read an exclusive interview with Anthony Horowitz.

Good luck with your mission.