The House of Silk

"He drives me mad, Anthony Horowitz . He is a dear friend and drives me completely bonkers because you can never tell what he’s going to write next. He’s so talented and so versatile. He goes from the Alex Rider books through to Sherlock Holmes through to James Bond through to a detective story without even stopping. I don’t know how he does it. He is amazing, but this is my favorite of his. He decided to take on Sherlock Holmes. And the greatest compliment I can pay Anthony is you think it’s been written by Conan Doyle. It’s a brilliant story that starts with Watson and Sherlock Holmes sitting in their home, quietly having a drink at night, when this lunatic rushes in and tells them a mystery. They don’t believe a word of it, but they set out just because they’ve got nothing better to do—typical Holmes—and it turns into a magnificent tale. I think it’s the best thing Horowitz has ever done. He captured it, didn’t he? He captured it, which is so clever. By page 30, you think you’re actually reading Sherlock Holmes. That takes some doing. He’s a very able man, but he still gets me cross. I wish he’d concentrate on one subject so I can have book after book. I begged him to write another Sherlock Holmes. I said, ‘What I would do, Anthony, is say you bought this house and, to your shock and surprise, you discovered six manuscripts in the bottom of a drawer with Dr Watson’s signature on them. And now you’re going to make a fortune just publishing them!’ So, get on with it, Anthony. But he refused to do that and wrote another Rider book."