“I’m always interested in trying to … do something a bit more profound than, after 400 pages, saying the butler did it, thank you, goodbye,” says Anthony Horowitz.

Flights of Fancy

For Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz, the best writing—and reading—offers an escape

By Bryan Appleyard

Anthony Horowitz writes a lot. To be precise, he has written 73 books and 14 TV series, including the superb Foyle’s War. His 13 bestselling Alex Rider books have become a TV series on Amazon. He writes for up to 16 hours a day, though averages ten. While in Suffolk he takes his dog, Boss, for eight-mile walks and swims daily.

His wife, the TV producer Jill Green, is similarly afflicted. “She’s the only person I know who is as driven as I am,” he says. They work together at either end of a long desk. “We often find ourselves at 11 o’clock at night, and we’ll look at each other and say: what do we do with our lives? Why aren’t we out partying with everybody else? But that’s just what we do.”