| Lee Child | |
| Birth Name: | James Dover Grant |
| Birth Date: | 1954 10, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Coventry, Warwickshire, England |
| Occupation: | Author |
| Alma Mater: | University of Sheffield (LLB) |
| Education: | King Edward's School, Birmingham |
| Period: | 1985–present |
| Genre: | Crime fiction, mystery, thriller |
| Relatives: | Andrew Grant (brother) |
| Notableworks: | Jack Reacher series of novels |
| Children: | 1 |
| Signature: | LeeChildSignature.png |
James Dover Grant[1] (born 29 October 1954), primarily known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British author who writes thriller novels, and is best known for his Jack Reacher novel series.[2] The books follow the adventures of a former American military policeman, Jack Reacher, who wanders the United States. His first novel, Killing Floor (1997), won both the Anthony Award and the 1998 Barry Award for Best First Novel.[3] [4]
Grant was born in Coventry.[5] His Northern Irish father, who was born in Belfast, was a civil servant who lived in the house where the singer Van Morrison was later born.[6] He is the second of four sons;[7] his younger brother, Andrew Grant, is also a thriller novelist. Grant's family relocated to Handsworth Wood in Birmingham when he was four years old so that the boys could receive a better education.[8] Grant attended Cherry Orchard Primary School in Handsworth Wood until the age of 11. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham.[9]
In 1974, at the age of 20, Grant studied law[10] at University of Sheffield, though he had no intention of entering the legal profession and, during his student days, worked backstage in a theatre. After graduating, he worked in commercial television. He received a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Sheffield in 1977 and returned to the university to receive an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) in 2009.[11]
Grant joined Granada Television, part of the UK's ITV Network, in Manchester as a presentation director.[12] There he was involved with shows including Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. Grant was involved in the transmission of more than 40,000 hours of programming for Granada, writing thousands of commercials and news stories.[13] He worked at Granada from 1977 to 1995 and ended his career there with two years as a trade union shop steward.[14]
After losing his job because of corporate restructuring,[12] Grant decided to start writing novels, stating they are "the purest form of entertainment."[15] In 1997, his first novel, Killing Floor, was published. Child moved to the United States, where he married a New Yorker. He starts each new book of the series on an anniversary of his starting the first book after losing his job.[16]
His pen name "Lee" comes from a mispronunciation of the name of Renault's Le Car, as "Lee Car". Calling anything "Lee" became a family gag. His daughter, Ruth, was "lee child".[17] The name has the advantage of placing his books alphabetically on bookshop and library shelves between crime fiction greats Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie.[12]
Grant has said that he came up with the name Reacher for the central character in his novels when he was grocery shopping with his wife Jane at Asda supermarket in Kendal, Cumbria, when he was living at Kirkby Lonsdale.[18] Grant's height often leads to people asking him to get something for them from a high shelf. Jane once joked: "'Hey, if this writing thing doesn't pan out, you could always be a reacher in a supermarket.' ... 'I thought, Reacher – good name.'"
Some books in the Jack Reacher series are written in the first person, while others are written in the third person. Grant has characterised the books as revenge stories – "Somebody does a very bad thing, and Reacher takes revenge" – driven by his anger at the downsizing at Granada. Although English, he deliberately chose to write American-style thrillers.[12] In 2007, Grant collaborated with 14 other writers to create the 17-part serial thriller The Chopin Manuscript, narrated by Alfred Molina. This was broadcast weekly on Audible.com between 25 September 2007 and 13 November 2007.
Grant worked as a visiting professor at the University of Sheffield from November 2008. In 2009, Grant funded 52 Jack Reacher scholarships for students at the university.[19]
Grant was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America in 2009.[20] Grant was the Programming Chair for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in 2018, part of the Harrogate International Festivals portfolio.[21]
In 2019, it was announced that Child would be curating a new TV show called Lee Child: True Crime. The show will dramatise real-life crime stories from around the world and focus on average people who go to extraordinary lengths to fight crime or seek justice.[22]
In January 2020, Child announced that he would be retiring from writing the Jack Reacher series and handing it to his brother Andrew Grant, who would write further books of the series under the surname Child.[23] He intended to write the next few books together with Grant before passing the series entirely over to him.[24]
Grant's prose has been described as "hardboiled" and "commercial" in style. A 2012 interview suggested that many aspects of the Jack Reacher novels were deliberately aimed at maintaining the books' profitability, rather than for literary reasons. For instance, making Jack Reacher have one parent who was French was suggested as being partly because the presence of only American members of Reacher's family would limit the series' appeal in France. The same interview stated that Grant "didn't apologise about the commercial nature" of his fiction.[25]
Child has listed John D. MacDonald, Alistair MacLean, and Robert B. Parker as influences on the Reacher series. [26]
In 2019, Child collaborated with musicians Jennifer and Scott Smith of the group Naked Blue on an album of music exploring Jack Reacher, in song. He contributed vocals to the track "Reacher Said Nothing."[27]
In 2020 Child joined the Booker Prize judging panel, alongside Margaret Busby (chair), Sameer Rahim, Lemn Sissay and Emily Wilson.[28] [29] [30]
In January 2012, Grant donated £10,000 for a new vehicle for the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team in Wales.[31]
Grant is an annual sponsor and original member of ThrillerFest.[32]
Grant married his wife Jane and moved to the United States. Since then, they have resided in New York state. They have a daughter, Ruth.[10] [33]
Grant is a fan of Aston Villa Football Club[34] and has been known to include the names of Aston Villa players in his books.[35]
In 2013, Grant rejected claims that he wrote while under the influence of marijuana that were initially reported in the Daily Mail.[36]
| Pub. order | Title | Year | ISBN | Perspective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Killing Floor | 1997 | 1st Person | |
| 2 | Die Trying | 1998 | 3rd Person | |
| 3 | Tripwire | 1999 | 3rd Person | |
| 4 | The Visitor (UK), or Running Blind (US) | 2000 | 3rd Person | |
| 5 | Echo Burning | 2001 | 3rd Person | |
| 6 | Without Fail | 2002 | 3rd Person | |
| 7 | Persuader | 2003 | 1st Person | |
| 8 | The Enemy | 2004 | 1st Person | |
| 9 | One Shot | 2005 | 3rd Person | |
| 10 | The Hard Way | 2006 | 3rd Person | |
| 11 | Bad Luck and Trouble | 2007 | 3rd Person | |
| 12 | Nothing to Lose | 2008 | 3rd Person | |
| 13 | Gone Tomorrow | 2009 | 1st Person | |
| 14 | 61 Hours | 2010 | 3rd Person | |
| 15 | Worth Dying For | 2010 | 3rd Person | |
| 16 | The Affair | 2011 | 1st Person | |
| 17 | A Wanted Man | 2012 | 3rd Person | |
| 18 | Never Go Back | 2013 | 3rd Person | |
| 19 | Personal | 2014 | 1st Person | |
| 20 | Make Me | 2015 | 3rd Person | |
| 21 | Night School | 2016 | 3rd Person | |
| 22 | The Midnight Line | 2017 | 3rd Person | |
| 23 | Past Tense[37] | 2018 | 3rd Person | |
| 24 | Blue Moon[38] | 2019 | 3rd Person | |
| 25^ | The Sentinel[39] | 2020 | 3rd Person | |
| 26^ | Better Off Dead | 2021 | 1st Person | |
| 27^ | No Plan B | 2022 | 3rd Person | |
| 28^ | The Secret | 2023 | 3rd Person | |
| 29 | In Too Deep | 2024 | ||
Collections:
"Too Much Time" (novella), "Deep Down", "Everyone Talks", "Guy Walks into a Bar", "High Heat" (novella), "James Penney's New Identity" (1999 version), "Maybe They Have a Tradition", "No Room at the Motel", "Not a Drill", "Second Son", "Small Wars", "The Picture of the Lonely Diner"
| Title | Year | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| "James Penney's New Identity" | 1999, edited 2006 | The 1999 version is longer. Collected in Fresh Blood 3 (edited by Mike Ripley and Maxim Jakubowski) and in Thriller (US) | |
| "Guy Walks into a Bar" | 2009 | Prequel to novel Gone Tomorrow, in The New York Times[40] | |
| "Second Son" | 2011 | Electronic short story | |
| "Knowing you're Alive" | 2011 | With M. J. Rose. Crossover with Butterfield Institute series. Collected in In Session | |
| "Deep Down" | 2012 | Electronic short story | |
| "High Heat" | 2013 | Electronic novella | |
| "Everyone Talks" | 2013 | In Esquire (June/July 2012, US edition) | |
| "Not a Drill" | 2014 | Electronic short story | |
| "Good and Valuable Consideration" | 2014 | With Joseph Finder. Crossover with Nick Heller series. Collected in Face Off (edited by David Baldacci) | |
| "No Room at the Motel" | 2014 | ||
| "Small Wars" | 2015 | Electronic short story | |
| "The Picture of the Lonely Diner" | 2015 | ||
| "Maybe they Have a Tradition" | 2016 | ||
| "Faking a Murderer" | 2017 | With Kathy Reichs. Crossover with Temperance Brennan series. Collected in Matchup | |
| "Too Much Time" | 2017 | Novella | |
| "The Christmas Scorpion" | 2017 | Electronic short story | |
| "The Fourth Man" | 2018 | Included in Australian paperback of Past Tense | |
| "Cleaning the Gold" | 2019 | With Karin Slaughter. Crossover with Will Trent series | |
| "Smile" | 2019 | Collected in Invisible Blood |
Other short stories:
| Novel title | Year | Awards/Nominations | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Killing Floor | 1997 | Anthony Award
| |
| Die Trying | 1998 | WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award | |
| Without Fail | 2002 | Dilys Award nominee; Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award nominee | |
| Persuader | 2003 | Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award nominee | |
| The Enemy | 2004 | Barry Award
| |
| One Shot | 2005 | Macavity Award nominee | |
| Bad Luck and Trouble | 2007 | Shortlisted for Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, 2009[42] | |
| 61 Hours | 2010 | Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, 2011 | |
| A Wanted Man | 2012 | Specsavers' National Book Award, Thriller & Crime Novel of the Year[43] | |
| Personal | 2014 | RBA Prize for Crime Writing valued at €125,000[44] |
Child has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
| Location | Date | School | Degree | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | University of Sheffield | Doctor of Letters (DLitt)[45] [46] | ||
| 21 July 2011 | De Montfort University | Doctor of Letters (DLitt)[47] | ||
| 2023 | Coventry University | Doctor of Letters (DLitt) |
| Year | Award | |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | The Bob Kellogg Good Citizen Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Internet Writing Community | |
| 2013 | Cartier Diamond Dagger, lifetime achievement by the Crime Writers' Association[48] | |
| 2017 | ThrillerMaster, lifetime achievement, by the International Thriller Writers association [49] | |
| 2017 | Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction, lifetime achievement, Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival, Harrogate International Festivals[50] | |
| 2019 | Author of the Year, lifetime achievement, British Book Awards[51] |
Grant was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to literature.