Even the most successful writers quail at the thought of a mauling from the critics.
So savage were the reviews of his 2015 play Dinner with Saddam that Anthony Horowitz has decided to write his next play under a pseudonym.
Horowitz, one of the country’s most popular novelists, said his foray into the “awful” world of theatre had been a chastening experience, with his play “brutalised” by reviewers.
According to The Times, he told an audience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival: “I have just finished another play and this time I am not even going to do it under my own name. Because I am quite convinced that theatre doesn’t want me, I am too much of a parvenu, too busy elsewhere.”
