Lee Child (born 1954, Coventry, England) is the pen name of British thriller writer Jim Grant [1]. His wife Jane[2] is a New Yorker[3] and they currently live in New York state. His first novel, Killing Floor, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel.
Each of Child's novels follows the adventures of a former American Military Policeman named Jack Reacher who is wandering the United States. In 2007, it was reported that the Reacher novels sold at the rate of one every second.[4]
Early life
Though Grant was born in Coventry, his parents moved him and his three brothers to Handsworth Wood in Birmingham when he was four years old so they could get a better education.[5] He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham - also the alma mater of J. R. R. Tolkien and Enoch Powell.[6] His father was a civil servant.[7]
Some of Grant's early influences include Enid Blyton, W.E. Johns, and Alistair Maclean.
In 1974 at age 20, Grant attended law school in Sheffield, though he had no intention of entering the legal profession and, during his student days, worked backstage in a theatre.[8] Instead, he took a job in commercial television after graduating.[9]
Career
Grant joined Granada Television, part of the UK's ITV Network, in Manchester as presentation director. There he was involved with shows including Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown (TV series), Prime Suspect, and Cracker. Grant was involved in the transmission of more than 40,000 hours of programming for Granada, writing thousands of commercials, news stories, and trailers.[10] He stayed with Granada 1977-1995[11] and ended his career there with two years as a trade union shop steward.[12]
After being fired because of corporate restructuring, he decided he wanted to start writing novels, stating they are "the purest form of entertainment."[13] In 1997 his first novel, Killing Floor, was published and he moved to the US in the summer of 1998.[14]
He has said that he chose the name 'Reacher' for the central character in his novels because he is himself tall and, in a supermarket, his wife Jane told him: "Hey, if this writing thing doesn't pan out, you could always be a reacher in a supermarket."... "I thought, Reacher — good name."[15] Some books in the Reacher series are written in first person, while others are written in the third person.
In 2007, Grant collaborated with 14 other writers to create the 17-part serial thriller "The Chopin Manuscript" narrated by Alfred Molina that was broadcast weekly on Audible.com from September 25, 2007 to November 13, 2007.
On 30 June 2008, it was announced that Lee Child would be taking up a Visiting Professorship at the University of Sheffield in the UK from November 2008.
Novels and awards
Other awards
- 2005, The Bob Kellogg Good Citizen Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Internet Writing Community
Short stories
- "James Penney's New Identity" from Fresh Blood 3 (edited by Mike Ripley and Maxim Jakubowski) and from Thriller (US)
- "The Snake Eater by the Numbers" from Like a Charm (edited by Karin Slaughter)
- "Ten Keys" from The Cocaine Chronicles (edited by Jervey Tervalon and Gary Phillips)
- "The Greatest Trick of All" from Greatest Hits (edited by Robert J Randisi)
Notes and references
Newspaper interviews
See also
External links
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