Great last question. Generally I don't start a book until I know everything about it, including the fact that it's probably worth writing. Frankly, life's too short to write ten or twenty thousand words and then throw them away. I'm currently writing a new novel, Magpie Murders, and I'm 90,000 words in. In fact, I'm off now to write the next chapter (my biggest fear being that I'll be run over by a bus on the way home).

Can I thank everyone for these great questions - it's been a real pleasure doing this with the Guardian. And thanks also to the fastest typist on the planet (not me).

I shall go to fanfiction.net immediately! I had no idea this was happening. And I'm very moved. It's great to think that the Alex Rider stories are encouraging people to write, as well as read.

No.

You're certainly right about those words - to be avoided! I found a short story that Ian Fleming had written but not published - it was called Trigger Finger. I stole the first word, and then, knowing that IF liked puns, I came up with Mortis. I've always said that actually the title is the most difficult part of a James Bond novel. And for what it's worth, I thought Carte Blanche was the best title yet.

I lost my entire collection of Fantastic Four comics in a house move years ago. And still regret it. How many thousands would it be worth now? As a boy, I loved The Valiant, and would even like to write a TV series based on Kelly's Eye or The Steel Claw!

To be honest, I was never really given any advice - certainly not when I needed it when I was young. At the end of the day, I simply believed in myself. Which is why that's the first piece of advice I give to young writers. If you believe in yourself, whatever you want to do, you'll get there in the end.

Cocktails of course are an integral part of British history, and I find increasingly that I need one myself as the sun goes down. I can promise you there are no G&Ts in New Blood.

I believe I came from that same town in Bohemia, and yes, I do feel a sense of connection. At the same time, there's a certain guilt that I have never looked into my family's history at any great length. I suppose I live for the moment, but at the same time, understanding where I've come from matters. Sadly, I rather parted company with my religion when I was very young, and in doing so, I am aware that I lost a great deal. I'm always aware that religion can be hugely helpful to people's lives. I didn't do well at Sunday school when I was 11 years old, and I found that I was an atheist by the time I was 13. But I say this with a certain amount of regret.

Think about the book you want to write, not the book you want to get published. Think about the narrative that matters to you. Write what you believe. After that? There are conventional publishers and there's the net. The Writers and Artists' Yearbook will give you better advice than I ever can.

I'm a huge fan of Stephen King and would love to meet him one day. I wouldn't dare to compare myself with him, but thanks for the implied compliment.

My favourite Stephen Kings: Firestarter, The Dead Zone, The Stand. He proves that great writing can be popular and populist too.

Wow! I hope your ten-year-old isn't having nightmares. See my earlier answer. The book was written out of the fear that the Old Ones, whatever they may represent, are gaining the upper hand. But no, it hasn't happened yet. I live in hope.

Ever since I was very young, I have tended to see the world in black and white terms. After all, I was born just ten years after the most straightforward war ever fought. And I suppose this has coloured my view. Of course, life is more complicated but the pleasure of children's books is they allow you to draw a simplistic line through complex issues, and that's sort of what the Power of Five tried to do. What happens to the world depends now much more on your ten-year-old son than it does on me.

But I hope that my books have helped to inform debate. The trick I suppose is not to moralise, not to preach, but to write good stories. That said, there are always messages. There are always morals. I have always been aware of the role books have in the life of young people especially which is why you'll have found me so often writing or talking about these issues.

As a matter of fact, I was in Los Angeles just a week ago, working on the American version of Collision which is going to be made, hopefully, by NBC. Foyle is already shown in America, and I have every hope New Blood will be too. Of course I have no control over these things. But it's interesting how much of a cultural exchange there is in television between us and the USA - we get The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. They get Downton Abbey! Who can say who is the winner in this arrangement.

Foyle did begin with me, it's true, but all television is about collaboration, and the moment Michael Kitchen was cast, the character really began to develop. We worked together for 15 very happy years, and what was interesting was I always found something new to write about, in his life and relationships. Of course, the war came to an end, and his entire world changed - he stopped being a policeman, and moved into the secret service. This was a challenge but also a fantastic opportunity to refresh the series, and question everything we had taken for granted. The whole show (produced by my wife, Jill Green) has been a huge part of my life. And judging from how many questions there have been about it, even in this session, I know how much Foyle is missed. But I've already said, sadly, it was time to move on.

The brilliance of the James Bond franchise is the way it's adapted itself to the time in which it was made. Sean Connery was perfect in the 60s, Daniel Craig is perfect now. It seems to me they can be pretty much anything... people will always enjoy them. It's hard to say where Bond will go next, in fact I imagine the producers will be having some fairly serious discussions, but Spectre has already been a resounding success and there's no reason to think the next one won't be too.

I would love to see the Power of Five adapted for television, and have been talking to producers about it. I'm told that following Game of Thrones, there is quite a hunger for this sort of material, but at the moment, I have nothing specific to report. It's great that the books are still out there, and still being read... they were a huge amount of work, and the message in them (for once there is one) meant a lot to me at the time. For those of you who don't know the books, they're basically Lord of the Rings set in the real world, and look at the eternal struggle between good and evil, but in a more realistic way than in some of my other work. They're about the environment, big business, politics, and war, but there are also monsters and witches too. The older I get the more I worry about the way things are going - it's only natural. I stopped thinking about myself, and start thinking about my children and the world they're going to inherit. As I say I think this is a natural part of getting older. All my fears for the future - along with my hopes - were expressed in this series.

It's quite a dark and bumpy ride but the strange thing is that I remain optimistic. I've always believed that every generation is smarter, and more successful, than the one before, and when I look at young people today (and here I'm thinking of New Blood again) I'm only encouraged.

I have absolutely no idea. For what it's worth, if I was working on the film, I wouldn't be allowed to tell you anything. But actually, I haven't seen Peter Jackson for a year now, and have no idea whether the next Tintin film is still being made.

It's funny you should ask this question, because I have often thought about revisiting Alex as a 23 or 24 year old. I'd be fascinated to explore what happened to him after he left for America at the end of the series, and how damaged he was by all the things that had happened to him. Curiously, although I've mentioned this to a couple of publishers, they haven't jumped on the idea, although as far as I know nobody has written an adult book about a children's book hero. Certainly I wouldn't want to spoil my memory of Alex - he's been so important to so many people's childhoods. But I am still tempted and it's just one of the ideas on my desk.

Thank you first for the very measured way in which you put this question. I am so very sorry that one stupid word started such a pointless argument. If I've learned anything, it's to think very carefully before I speak. Let me say at once that I am 100% in support of casting that reaches out to every corner of society, and I think you will certainly see this if you watch New Blood. I realise now how much sensitivity there is around this issue, and I will certainly be more careful in future. I'm only glad that in the case of your family, you say that some useful and positive discussion has come out of it. Again, I'm really sorry this happened.

I loved writing The House of Silk and Moriarty, because these go back to my childhood. Revisiting the world of Sherlock Holmes, celebrating the characters created by Conan Doyle, and doing it all with the blessing of the Doyle estate... what's not to enjoy? I only did his books because I was asked, but it was a difficult invitation to refuse. Having said that, after Holmes and Bond, I can't think of any other literary characters I want to visit.

At the moment it looks unlikely, certainly there's no interest from Hollywood. But you never know... I really liked Stormbreaker, it had so many good things in it, but perhaps something went a little wrong in the final mix. I don't know, I was always sorry we were never able to continue with the rest of the series.

I plot everything very carefully, and never begin writing a TV programme or a novel until I have the complete structure in front of me. But that doesn't mean I have to stick to the structure. It's like having a map - if you know where you want to go, you can choose many ways of getting there. I do surf the net for research or just to give myself a rest - I visit Twitter three or four times a day, I go and play the piano. I used to smoke between chapters, but stopped when I realised this could kill me.

Robin was a huge break for me. I was incredibly lucky to write five episodes of this hugely popular series. Richard Carpenter who created it and Paul Knight the producer were both my mentors and taught me a huge amount about writing for television. It still remains one of my happiest TV writing experiences (I saw Mark Ryan just a week ago and we had a happy time reminiscing - fans will know who he is). When I started on Robin I knew nothing about how to construct a script. I had never been on a set, I had never worked with successful actors, the whole thing was an amazing learning curve - Richard Carpenter in particular was a master storyteller. He taught me how to be economical, how to pace a script, how to build in all the different layers, how to use television to tell a story. He died a few years ago, and I still miss him.

Sorry, haven't had time to Google this one...

I'm so glad I've come upon your question, thank you for asking it and for tweeting me. I'm also delighted my books have found a place in your school, and I hope they continue to encourage your students to read. When I was young, I read Willard Price (his books are still in print), Roald Dahl, and later Ian Fleming! But actually, it was Tintin who inspired me to be a writer. I dreamed of having adventures like his, and making bizarre friends all around the world. Tintin of course is a writer. Books became hugely important to me in my teens, and when I was at school in north London, not a very nice place (the school, not north London), books were definitely a lifeline.

I'm afraid it'll be difficult! Right now I'm working on my new TV series for BBC One, New Blood, and I'm really loving being in the 21st-century with a very young, very energetic cast. Last night at midnight, we were filming at Canary Wharf - I even made a cameo appearance. Foyle's War was a huge part of my life - fifteen years! But the truth is, that I covered the entire war as well as the years immediately afterwards and I really felt that I'd run out of true stories and it was time to move on.

New Blood looks at present day London, from the perspective of young people... something that has always interested me. Getting jobs, paying tuition fees, starting out on the first rung of the ladder, finding somewhere to live. It seems so much more difficult now than it was when I was young. Part of the trouble is my generation, which has lived too long, and really taken too much. Somehow we need to get out of the way and let this next generation come through. That's the ethos behind the show. It's also an adventure/crime show and I think it's a lot of fun. We have two great stars, one British-Polish, the other British-Iranian, and I'm so enjoying writing for them - I think they're going to be stars.

I would never call writing a job, for me it's a passion, and I try not to have a "typical" day. Broadly speaking I get up quite early, have a bath and start work (not in the bath). I then write until I stop, which could be five hours, ten or even fifteen. But don't get the idea I'm some kind of hermit - I have friends, meetings, I go out and have walks. Here I am at the Guardian which is fun! I suppose writing has always been the greatest passion in my life. I completely absorb myself in it, and I don't tend to notice what's going on around me.

I have no plans to write any more Alex Rider books. A lot of people ask me this, but I really feel Alex belonged to a part of my life that is now over - even though I really miss him. There are plans for a collection of Alex Rider short stories next year, and occasionally there's interest in Alex on TV or in film. Sadly, I can't say that there's anything definite at the moment, but I'm always pursuing it.

No, lots of people tweet me about Crime Traveller, and for me it will always be "the one that got away". I loved writing it, but it fell into a hole when one head of drama left the BBC and another was appointed. I'm not at all sheepish about it - I wish we could have done more. It was one of my very first commissioned TV programmes, and I loved playing with all the time paradoxes and approaching time travel in a completely different way, even though by the end of eight hours - all written by me - my brain was in meltdown. I'd happily do more.

I cannot remember ever writing anything about Nazis or Catholicism in Poirot or Midsomer Murders. A Nazi or two may have turned up in Foyles War.

At the end of the day, story is what matters to me, and you could say that story is the river that runs through all my work. I try not to see any difference between writing for children and writing for adults. I just go with the story. Of course, the marketing, the packaging and some of the content is different - but the actual act of writing, the physicality, is the same.

I've been on the board for four years, I was invited by Sally Green who is a dynamic chief executive of the OV. I love being associated with such an old and much loved theatre, particularly as it receives no regular Arts Council funding, and just gets by on goodwill and great work.

- Not yet, but I'd certainly be eager to.
- I thought they were both good. Did you know you could cut out the UK cover and turn it into a rocket? I thought that was fun.
- I believe sales have gone very well, and certainly the response has been fantastic, particularly from Bond fanzines. I think we'll have to wait for the paperback to know how well it's done overall.
- There were lots of products, but nobody paid me.
- Thinking up the idea, and living in the shadow of Ian Fleming was amazing. I was sorry that some of the publicity went off the rails.
- The fans have been great, I've had so many kind tweets from them, I'm a real Bond fan myself so it mattered to me.

Haven't seen it yet - can't wait to go.

I'm on the board of the Old Vic, which is a real privilege. Particularly at this exciting time, with Matthew Warchus as our brand new artistic director. This is not a writing role! But I have had discussions with Matthew about a possible secret project. Meanwhile don't miss The Hairy Ape, which is amazing, and The Lorax looked great.

Matthew has extended the season, brought in new talent (writing and directing) and is really turning the theatre into somewhere everyone will want to go to. He's even created a new cafe!