Anthony Horowitz joins Ray for a fascinating chat about his writing career and his latest book Marble Hall Murders. Listen back above.
Keeping a human skull on his writing desk works as a motivational tool for writer Anthony Horowitz. The British author and screenwriter has published almost 100 books; across young adult fiction, horror and detective novels, as well as "continuation" fiction for deceased writers like Ian Fleming and Arthur Conan Doyle. He tells Ray D’Arcy about his latest novel Marble Hall Murders, his writing process and why he thinks AI will never be able to create high-quality original fiction.
Marble Hall Murders is the final book in the trilogy of whodunits including Magpie Murders (2016) and Moonflower Murders (2020). In the latest murder mystery, newly retired book editor Susan Ryeland is persuaded to help author Eliot Crace investigate the possible murder of his grandmother, Miriam. Miriam Crace was a hugely successful children’s author and Eliot hides clues to his grandmother’s murder in the book he is writing.
The writer (who just celebrated his 70th birthday) tells Ray he’s been comfortable with his own mortality since about the age of 13, when his mother gave him a human skull as a Christmas present. The skull has a permanent home on his writing desk, and Horowitz says it helps him to be more productive:
"I use it as a symbol of mortality and a reminder – get on with the next book. Don’t waste time on YouTube or doing crossword puzzles – get on and keep writing, because all too soon, that’s what you’re going to look like."
If by chance he should die during the writing of a murder mystery, Anthony says he’s already taken measures to fulfil his readers’ curiosity from beyond the grave:
"I leave an envelope on the shelf behind my bed, next to the skull, behind my desk next to the skull, which has the solution to the book inside it. I say who the killer is, what the clues are, how you should work it out etcetera."
Horowitz tells Ray that, in the event of his sudden death, he would be tortured in his final moments by the thought that no-one would know who the culprit was in his unfinished novel:
"I just know that my last thoughts would be, "Dammit, no one is ever going to know who killed Miriam Crace!" So, it has to be there. So at least I can fade away with the feeling that someone can take it over."
When it comes to "taking over" from best-selling authors, Horowitz has been anointed by two of the very best – Ian Fleming and Arthur Conan Doyle. The estates of both writers have approved Horowitz as a "continuation writer", i.e. one who picks up the baton where they left off, keeping characters like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond "alive" long after the orignial authors have died.
Horowitz says that unlike the material churned out by AI, continuation writing is not imitation, but something akin to ventriloquism, where he suppresses his own voice but still gets the message across.
Ray mentions a short story that has been produced by an AI tool and the reviews it receieved included a comment that it was "quite good". Ray asks Anthony if he’s nervous about the capacity of AI to churn out stories:
"I’m not scared. If I was 'quite good’ only, I wouldn’t be writing. That in itself is a criticism of AI. It will never, in my view, not in a million years or a billion years, manage to match the genius of creativity that every human being has."
Horowitz says he loves technology and appreciates its many gifts, but he believes that AI is a lot more limited than people think:
"AI can’t be stupid. It can’t make mistakes. It’s not even very good at being funny, because it doesn’t have the fallibility of human beings. It doesn’t have our experience. I don’t think AI is intelligent – that’s the wrong word. It is imitation."
You can hear more in the full intervew about Horowitz’s views on AI, filming with Irish crews and Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue, his new thriller series featuring Irish actress Siobhán McSweeney – click on the image above.
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz is out now, published by Century.