JAMES Bond died the day Roger Moore turned up in a safari suit. That's the view of Anthony Horowitz.
He is a man on a mission to to reinvent James Bond for the new Millennium -- as a 14-year old with explosive zit cream, no love life to speak of and no guns.
Horowitz's new novel Point Blanc is his second to feature reluctant superspy Alex Rider.
The book has a classic Bond-style plot with Rider dispatched to the exclusive Point Blanc Academy in the French Alps to unravel the warped plans of evil genius Dr Grief, which revolve in a timely way around human cloning.
With key scenes including a mountain-edge chase where Rider snowboards on a sawn-off ironing board, it's a book that grips you in exactly the way the best Bond novels and movies do.
Horowitz introduced Alex Rider in Stormbreaker, a huge success last year.
Horowitz is now only surpassed in terms of children's book sales by the likes of Roald Dahl and J K Rowling.
Expectations are high -- in the UK, throughout Europe and in the US -- that Point Blanc will propel him to the next level. To that end, Walker Books has just signed him up with a contract for the next two Alex Rider books.
Walker Books £4.99
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