Anthony Horowitz always wanted to write a James Bond story, long before – it must be said – anyone else wanted him to.
The best-selling British author has never hidden his debt to Ian Fleming's 007, which he credits as the inspiration for Alex Rider, the hero of his young-adult series of books which, with a whopping 19 million book sales, are responsible for much of his success.
"When Dr No came out at the cinema I was 8 years old," says the 60-year-old writer. "The films were a big event for me and they led me to the books.
"I read all of them and absolutely adored Ian Fleming's work and dreamed one day that I might write a James Bond film – that was my first dream. So, when that didn't happen, I wrote Alex Rider instead, which was my tribute to James Bond."
Following Fleming’s death in 1964, the writer’s estate began commissioning authors to write new 007 adventures. The mantle was passed around a bit over the years – the first post-Fleming novel was written by Kingsley Amis, no less, writing as Robert Markham – before John Gardner notably took control of the series for 16 novels. American author Raymond Benson then wrote six, the last of which published in 2002.
All was quiet until 2008 when, to mark the 100th anniversary of Fleming's birth, his estate turned to acclaimed Birdsong author Sebastian Faulks to revive the series with Devil May Care. Horowitz was not happy.
"I will admit that I was quite jealous," he says. "And then I was jealous when Jeffery Deaver was asked [to write 2011's Carte Blanche]. Then William Boyd was asked [2013's Solo] and I began to write little articles in newspapers saying: 'Why can't I write one?'"
This public appeal worked and Horowitz's turn finally came when, in the summer of 2014, he was commissioned to write what would become Trigger Mortis. It proved to be worth the wait – he was the first author given access to unused treatments and material that Fleming himself wrote for a proposed American 007 TV series that never materialised. Some of Fleming's own writing was worked into Horowitz's final manuscript.
It wasn't the first time Horowitz had been asked to continue a long-running series of novels featuring a beloved British crime fighter – his Sherlock Holmes novels The House of Silk and Moriarty were published in 2011 and 2014 respectively – but this time was different.
“I was very nervous about working with the Ian Fleming estate,” says Horowitz,
“There was always a sense that if I stepped out of line they would come down very heavily. But from our first meeting, it was clear that we were both after the same thing – to try to write the sort of book Ian Fleming might have written if he was still alive.”
Horowitz altered his method to write as Fleming did – fast, and on a keyboard, rather than with his usual fountain pen.
He broke with convention by placing Bond in a tight chronological framework, setting the story in 1957 at the height of the space race, two weeks after the events of Fleming's Goldfinger.
As a result the book is packed with period detail – and it allowed Horowitz to revive the much-loved heroine Pussy Galore.
“It seemed to me absolutely necessary to place Bond in his own world, his own time, to really look at the novels and see when it might have taken place,” says Horowitz.
“I loved writing the book and felt Fleming’s energy with it. I read the books very, very carefully – Fleming is such a good writer, brilliant with the worldly tiredness, sense of laid-back, slightly cynical, dissident, hard-edged Bondian reflection.
“I tried to work out how he did it, how he used language, how his sentences were structured, and do exactly the same.”
• Anthony Horowitz will discuss Trigger Mortis on March 11 at 1.30pm at InterContinental Dubai Festival City; Dh70; and Alex Rider and Other Adventures on March 12 at noon at Novo Cinemas, Dubai Festival City. For more details, visit www.emirateslitfest.com
rgarratt@thenational.ae
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Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
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TECH SPECS: APPLE WATCH SE (second generation)
Display: 40mm, 324 x 394; 44mm, 368 x 448; Retina LTPO OLED, up to 1000 nits; Ion-X glass
Processor: Apple S8, W3 wireless
Capacity: 32GB
Memory: 1GB
Platform: watchOS 9
Health metrics: 2nd-gen heart rate sensor, workouts, fall/crash detection; emergency SOS, international emergency calling
Connectivity: GPS/GPS + cellular; Wi-Fi, LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC (Apple Pay)
Durability: Water resistant up to 50m
Battery: 269mAh Li-ion, up to 18h, wireless charging
Cards: eSIM
Finishes: Aluminium; midnight, silver, starlight
In the box: Watch SE, magnetic-to-USB-C charging cable, band/loop
Price: Starts at Dh999 (40mm) / 1,119 (44mm)
A general guide to how active you are:
Less than 5,000 steps - sedentary
5,000 - 9,999 steps - lightly active
10,000 - 12,500 steps - active
12,500+ - highly active
Key products and UAE prices
iPhone XS
With a 5.8-inch screen, it will be an advance version of the iPhone X. It will be dual sim and comes with better battery life, a faster processor and better camera. A new gold colour will be available.
Price: Dh4,229
iPhone XS Max
It is expected to be a grander version of the iPhone X with a 6.5-inch screen; an inch bigger than the screen of the iPhone 8 Plus.
Price: Dh4,649
iPhone XR
A low-cost version of the iPhone X with a 6.1-inch screen, it is expected to attract mass attention. According to industry experts, it is likely to have aluminium edges instead of stainless steel.
Price: Dh3,179
Apple Watch Series 4
More comprehensive health device with edge-to-edge displays that are more than 30 per cent bigger than displays on current models.
Super heroes
Iron Man
Reduced risk of dementia
Alcohol consumption could be an issue
Hulk
Cardiac disease, stroke and dementia from high heart rate
Spider-Man
Agility reduces risk of falls
Increased risk of obesity and mental health issues
Black Panther
Vegetarian diet reduces obesity
Unknown risks of potion drinking
Black Widow
Childhood traumas increase risk of mental illnesses
Thor
He's a god
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
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Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo 4-cylinder / 2.0 turbo 4-cylinder (S3)
Power: 148bhp / 328bhp (S3)
Torque: 250Nm / 420Nm (S3)
On sale: December
Price: TBA
UAE SQUAD
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan
Family reunited
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.+
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
She was held in her native country a year later.+
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Etihad (etihad.com) flies from Abu Dhabi to Mykonos, with a flight change to its partner airline Olympic Air in Athens. Return flights cost from Dh4,105 per person, including taxes.
Where to stay
The modern-art-filled Ambassador hotel (myconianambassador.gr) is 15 minutes outside Mykonos Town on a hillside 500 metres from the Platis Gialos Beach, with a bus into town every 30 minutes (a taxi costs €15 [Dh66]). The Nammos and Scorpios beach clubs are a 10- to 20-minute walk (or water-taxi ride) away. All 70 rooms have a large balcony, many with a Jacuzzi, and of the 15 suites, five have a plunge pool. There’s also a private eight-bedroom villa. Double rooms cost from €240 (Dh1,063) including breakfast, out of season, and from €595 (Dh2,636) in July/August.