[This interview first appeared in The Daily Telegraph in October 1997]

Peter James is passionate about the future of literature. The 49-year-old author is frequently referred to as "the British Stephen King" for his prolific output of technological and supernatural thrillers. He considers himself to be on "something of a mission" to ensure that reading doesn't get left behind in the digital age.

"I think reading is the greatest experience that anyone can have," he says, "but I think unless reading moves with technology, it will die out."

It was this belief that led James to become author of the world's first formally published floppy disk novel, Host, at the end of 1994. A science fiction thriller about the possibilities of artificial intelligence, Host had already appeared in hardback the previous year.

Purely on a whim, James suggested the idea of a floppy disk edition to his publisher, Penguin. Within 24 hours, the new media division had given the go-ahead for versions of Host to be developed on both PC and Macintosh platforms.

Host's floppy disk edition contained the novel's entire text, along with hyperlinks to another 20,000 words of annotation, which explored Host's ideas about cryogenics and downloading human consciousness in greater depth. There was also a QuickTime movie of James introducing his book, an audio epilogue and pictures of some of the technology featured in the novel.

The disk edition of Host was published at the same time as the paperback in November 1994. Last-minute technical glitches meant that the PC version was badly delayed. However, the Macintosh version sold 3,000 copies within six weeks, a significant amount for a book published in any format. Most important, the electronic edition generated huge publicity.

"I was amazed at the level of hostility," says James, "although I quite enjoyed it. I remember being with Griff Rhys Jones on a radio programme where he accused me of causing the death of the novel. The Society of Authors was vitriolic, saying I was destroying the nation's reading habits. But I was very pleased with the electronic version. Having the extra annotation meant I didn't have to junk all the interesting research that wasn't used in the novel. I also thought it was a throwback to the Victorian novel, to the Dickensian 'dear reader, let me take you on a diversion' sort of thing. If you wanted the extra depth, you could have it. It struck me that the electronic version of Host was going back to the roots of the novel."

The American launch of Host vindicated James's point of view. Random House gave away 30,000 floppies containing the first four chapters of the novel, which in turn boosted sales of the paperback. But James sees Host as only the first step in the transformation of the book.

"There's nothing sacrosanct about the printed word," he maintains. "The paperback is a ludicrously inefficient device. I've seen people on ski lifts carrying half a James Clavell novel which they've ripped in half because it's so bulky. Paperbacks aren't environmentally friendly, and a vast percentage of them get pulped. If you can see every single word that's ever been written on one computer screen, then it's evidently more efficient. The turning point will be when it becomes more pleasant to read off a computer screen than paper."

Even so, James considers it essential for publishers to integrate reading with new technology as soon as possible if they want to capture the interest of the younger generation. "The electronic version of Host was an attempt to put the glitz and interactivity back into reading to attract a younger audience back to books. With CD-Roms, you can make the overall package even more exciting."

James believes the Internet is the other great hope for injecting reading with young people's interest in new technology. Until recently, James was a founder-director of Brighton-based Pavilion Internet, the UK's first regional Internet Service Provider. He uses the Net extensively to research his novels and considers it "a writer's greatest secret resource".

He has carried over his enthusiasm for the Net into a new book series for children, Techno Terrors, which he describes as "a sort of Famous Five get on the Internet". James believes future generations will not have the same sentimental qualms as our own about the source of their reading. "I think history will show the Net to be as important to us as Gutenberg was to his time."

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