Anthony Horowitz and Charles Cumming have chatted with fans and passionate readers at the historical Daunt Bookshop in Marylebone High Street, in the heart of London. The authors entered the Edwardian style hall of the bookshop. Horowitz was smiling and relaxed, wearing a blue jacket on a white t-shirt and jeans; he looked around and then calmly sat on the comfortable chair on the stage. To his left, another man stepped on the stage. Charles Cumming opened his eyes wide, staring surprised at the numerous people gathered this evening. He smoothed his dark blue jacket, took his notebook - in which he had probably written down a few notes and questions - and sat down. The conversation could start; the topic of the event was the presentation of Horowitz’s latest book (Forever and a day), a James Bond’s intriguing adventure.
After a brief introduction, Cumming got straight to the point, asking Horowitz which his James Bond’s favourite book was. “I think I would go for ‘Dr. No’ because it was the first I’ve ever read, and it impressed me,” Horowitz answered. “But I would personally say that the best one was ‘From Russia with love’.” James Bond has been a successful films’ franchising, and, predictably, Horowitz explained which his favourite film and actor personifying the British spy were. “Sean Connery and Daniel Craig are my favourite actors, but the most iconic was Roger Moore.” The audience nodded in unison, agreeing with the author’s thought. Cumming interjected, saying that James Bond had only the resemblance of Roger Moore. “It’s not that I don’t like the others, or I haven’t appreciated their performances,” he explained. “I grew up with Moore as Bond.” “I think ‘Casino Royale’ was the best film if we compare the movies to the books,” Horowitz went on. “The film was an amazing return to the original atmosphere described in the books.” The authors were perfectly comfortable with the topic they were talking about, and the audience interacted and reacted their comments and opinions on the character created by Ian Fleming in the Fifties. “The book is a sort of prequel,” Horowitz said. “The story actually happened three to four months before ‘Casino Royale’, and the main purpose of it was to try giving an explanation as to why Bond became such a cold-blood assassin.” Cumming’s questioning was absolutely brilliant and cleverly calculated; without letting the conversation get boring and unlively, he led Horowitz to speak of Bond’s villains. “My favourite villain was Hugo Drax,” the author claimed. “He was the perfect resemblance of evil. He was perfectly extreme.” The readers and fans knew James Bond for his spy abilities, but they also knew him for his attitude towards the women. “I’m glad for the improvements of the women’ conditions and I totally support the cause, but in terms of Bond’s novel, I don’t think he was either sexist or misogynist,” Horowitz said, shifting in his chair. “He had always treated the women kindly and respectfully, you can read that in the novels.” Then, he added with a grin. “Despite, of course, he had a quite huge sexual appetite.” Writing about James Bond wasn’t as easy as it might appear. Horowitz had to deal with the Fleming Foundation during his researches. “I had already written a novel about James Bond, and this time I was less nervous than before,” the writer said. “The Foundation helped me a lot, though. I explained my ideas, and they were very comprehensive and available.” Horowitz told the audience a curious situation happened during the creation of his book; the author described a scene in which Bond woke up and got off the bed naked. After having read that part, the Foundation contacted him by saying that the scene was fine, but Bond had never slept naked. The spy used to wear a bed jacket every time he went to sleep. “They were very watchful,” Horowitz said, chuckling with the audience, “but they’ve always respected my points of view.” Horowitz has been a huge fan of James Bond and Sherlock Holmes – about whom he wrote two novels (The house of silk and Moriarty) – since he was a kid. “I wanted to write about them because I’ve loved them,” he said. “My father gave me the first Sherlock Holmes book, and I’ve known I would be a crime writer since.” Answering a question from the audience, Horowitz said that he’s always structured his novels carefully, especially when he wrote about other authors’ characters. “When I wrote about Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, I wanted to set my novels in the same period Fleming and Doyle had set them,” Horowitz said. “I could have created them nowadays, but I would have felt it wrongly and inadequate.” The end of the conversation dealt with the future of the author and his next works. “Writing is an adventure, and I like to experiment new genres and new kind of stories,” the author said, “I’ve got numerous ideas for plays and children books.” He then added, smiling. “What I’ll never do is to stop writing the stories which cross my mind.”
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