Lee Child was born October 29th, 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV's "golden age." Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars' worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.
Lee Child was born Oct. 29, 1954 in Coventry, England and raised in nearby Birmingham.
While studying law, Child became interested in theatre and led a successful career as a television technical director for 18 years.
After getting fired from Granada Television as a result of corporate restructuring, Child purchased some notepads and a pencil for roughly £3.99 and wrote the first Jack Reacher novel.
Unemployed and writing his first book, Child often says he had two muses: "fear and hunger."
Jack Reacher is described as a super-tough, ex-military policeman who stands at six foot five with ice-blue eyes, dirty-blond hair and a muscular physique — despite never exercising and having a terrible diet. Child is exactly one inch shorter than Reacher.
More of the American hero's quirks: Reacher chooses to live life as a drifter whose sole possessions include a folding toothbrush, a passport and bank card. Each day he buys a new outfit and throws the old one in the trash.
The Jack Reacher books are often about revenge — not necessarily Reacher's personal revenge, but getting revenge on behalf of others or society.
Child has collaborated with the band Naked Blue on an album inspired by their favourite character, Jack Reacher. It's called Just the Clothes on my Back and is due out in November 2018.
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