In July 2010 we collaborated with the Hong Kong Book Fair to invite two renowned UK authors to Hong Kong: novelist / screenwriter Anthony Horowitz and poet / critic James Fenton. The two writers shared with the audiences their works as well as their careers as an author.

Anthony Horowitz conducted a talk at the Hong Kong Book Fair in conversation with local celebrity columnist and UK Alumni Chip Tsao. The event saw a full house of over 250 people, with many people standing at the back of the room. His teenage fans are all thrilled to hear personal anecdotes from their favourite writer, and there was a big crowd queuing up for Anthony's autograph afterwards. (Please click here to view the video.)

The "Friends of British Council Hong Kong" (FOBC), a charity set up to support cultural and educational exchanges between Hong Kong and UK, hosted a fund-raising dinner with Anthony Horowitz. Under the title "Murder, Mystery and Mayhem", Anthony, in dialogue with Chip Tsao, talked about the stories behind his literary creations to our FOBC members and guests.

Chip Tsao also facilitated a dialogue with James Fenton at the Hong Kong Book Fair, with an audience of over 100. James read some of his poems at the talk, many of which were written while he was in Asia, in particular in Vietnam and Philippines, when he witnessed numerous turbulences during war time.

We also organised a talk with James Fenton at the Foreign Correspondents' Club where James talked about "From Journalism to Poetry". Moderated by Phil Whelan from RTHK, James discussed his early career as a political journalist working in Asia, and how that intertwined with his literary creations. The talk was attended by over 70 people, including journalists, literary lovers and local poets.

Comments from participants at Anthony Horowitz’s talk:

• "This was a good event, bringing in an author that really entertained and inspired me."
• "Could not have asked for a better presentation from the British Council."

Comments from participants at James Fenton’s talk:

• "It gives me a new taste of poems and poets."
• "The event was very impressive, because I could hear the 'inward eye' of James when I listened to his performance of his poems."  

Please click here. for the authors' biographies.

About the Authors

James Fenton James Fenton was born in Lincoln in 1949. He was educated at Durham Choristers' School, Repton and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry. He has worked as a political and literary journalist on the New Statesman; was a freelance reporter in Indo-China; spent a year in Germany working for the Guardian; was theatre critic for The Sunday Times for five years; chief book reviewer for The Times from 1984 to 1986; South East Asian correspondent for The Independent from 1986 to 1988 and a columnist for the publication until 1995. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. James Fenton was Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1994 to 1999. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1983 and was awarded the Queen’s Medal for Poetry in 2007.

Anthony Horowitz Author, screenwriter and journalist Anthony Horowitz is probably one of the UK’s most successful and prolific writers. He is the creator of the best-selling teen spy series Alex Rider, which has sold over 13 million copies worldwide, as well as the supernatural Power of Five series and the Diamond Brothers series. Anthony is also the writer and creator of the award-winning drama series Foyle’s War and more recently, Collision.  His other television works include Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Crime Traveller, and Murder Most Horrid. He also regularly writes for a wide variety of national newspapers on subjects ranging from politics to education. In 2007, Anthony was singled out by then British Education Secretary Alan Johnson as the not-so-secret weapon to get boys reading.  In May 2007, he was named ‘Author of the Year’ at the British Book Industry Awards, and in 2008 was made the National Year of Reading’s first Champion Author as a result of his regular outreach work with youth offenders and looked-after children throughout the UK.  In March 2009 Anthony became patron of English charity EACH (East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices) – a charity for terminally ill children.

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