The editor occasionally offers me advice as to what to write about but I'm not sure about his suggestion for my last column before Christmas. "One potential area would be to look at the impact a recession could have on authors." Mmm . . . perhaps a little gloomy for the festive season? Instead, I head off to Borders to examine its...

Anthony Horowitz, Sally Gardner, and Kate Thompson are among the authors shortlisted for the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize. The three authors are joined by Tanya Landman, Anthony McGowan, and Patrick Ness on the six-strong list. Independent children's publisher Walker has three books on the selection, with the Bodley Head, Definitions and...

Anthony Horowitz is penning a serial for ITV, which the broadcaster is billing as a "major new event drama". The author of the popular Alex Rider series of books is working on "Collision", a new drama of five one-hour episodes, which will tell the story of a major road accident and the group of people caught up in its...

A publisher asked me an interesting question a short while ago. What would it have done to my sales if I had made Alex Rider black? I thought about this just before Christmas when I was invited into 10 Downing Street to meet Gordon Brown as an ambassador for the 2008 National Year of Reading. Brown was surprisingly affable and seemed genuinely...