WHERE SEAGULLS DARE

I’m shocked.

The last time I wrote a Diamond brothers novel was actually 18 years ago – back in 2002 and it wasn’t even a full novel. It was called The Blurred Man and it was only 80 pages long.

I’ve been so busy with Alex Rider that I’ve completely ignored Tim Diamond, the world’s most stupid private detective, and his smarter younger brother, Nick.

But with the whole world in lockdown and young readers forced to stay away from school and their friends, I was wondering what I could do to help and suddenly the Diamond brothers came to mind.

What we need right now is jokes. So I’m writing a new story: Where Seagulls Dare.

But I’m doing it in a very different way. Normally when you read one of my stories, I may have written it half a dozen times. It’s been edited. All the spelling mistakes (and unnecessary violence) have been taken out. It’s been put into a nice cover with illustrations beside the text. It is, in other words, a book.

This time, what you’re going to read is “work in progress”. As I sit here, locked down in London, I have almost no idea what’s going to happen in the story. I’m not even sure I know what to write in Chapter Two! The whole thing may go hopelessly wrong and it’s quite possible that I won’t ever get to the end.

If you want the truth, I very much hope that this whole virus thing will be over before I’ve written too many chapters and I can stop and bring out the whole book at some time in the future (with all author profits going to support our brilliant NHS.)

In the meantime, though, I hope you’ll enjoy the story…even with the typos and the speling mistakes. You can let me know what you think as I continue – and it’s even possible I may have to ask for help.

Anyway, here is Chapter One. And Chapter Two…?

Help!

Anthony Horowitz