AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE - OPENING DAY, MARCH 17 - 5.03pm

Higham and Horowitz: a winning cocktail

I hadn’t intended to attend ‘An Audience with Anthony Horowitz’ at The Sheldonian but somehow managed to mix it up with ‘A Poem for Every Day of the Year’, held at the same time but different venue. Nevertheless, having settled myself and wondered why Mr Horowitz alone was presenting and performing ‘A Poem For...’ (which but a stone’s throw away was, at very that moment, introducing its all-star cast of Alexander Armstrong, Gina Bellman, Ronni Ancona and Samuel West) I found myself enthralled. And not just by Horowitz. His interviewer, Nick Higham, the former media correspondent for the BBC became in just five fleeting minutes, one of the best interviewers I’ve ever seen at the festival. My god he knew his stuff and consequently, instead of the usual ping-pong routine you see at these affairs, the Q&A quickly elevated to a conversation and ultimately a snappy rapport. Riveting stuff from an audience’s point of view and I can always watch Mr Armstrong any weekday evening.