‘I wanted to write a suburban Reacher’: Richard Osman talks to Lee Child about class, success and the secret to great crime writing

The two bestselling authors who both started in TV discuss writing as a second career, natural justice – and what they really think of literary fictionIn the four years since Richard Osman published his first Thursday Murder Club novel he has consistently topped the bestseller lists, and now his quartet of retirement-age detectives will be portrayed on screen by a cast including Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. Having grown up in Sussex, Osman started out in TV, where he created and co-hosted the gameshow Pointless. His forthcoming novel We Solve Murders – the start of a new series – features a writer billed as the world’s bestselling novelist, “if you don’t count Lee Child”. Child, the creator of former military police officer Jack Reacher, has enjoyed phenomenal popularity since he left his career – also in TV, where he worked on shows including Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown and Cracker – and started writing, with his first novel published in 1997. Raised in Birmingham, he moved to the US in 1998 and now lives between Manhattan and rural Wyoming. He wrote 24 Reacher novels before announcing in 2020 that he would be handing the series to his brother Andrew.Lee Child I feel that writing is always a second-phase career, or at least should be. It’s that rare thing that not only can you do it when you’re older, but you should do it when you’re older. Pick your cliche: your gas tank is full, your database is compiled. You are a person. You are ready to write.... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-09-14 09:00:23 UTC ]
News tagged with: #consistently topped #bestseller lists #retirement-age detectives #pierce brosnan #gameshow pointless #solve murders #writer billed #bestselling novelist #rural wyoming #announcing in2020 #brother andrew #rare thing #gas tank #ve spent #cable box #first novel

Other Publishing stories related to: '‘I wanted to write a suburban Reacher’: Richard Osman talks to Lee Child about class, success and the secret to great crime writing'


Don Perlin, Comic Book Artist Who Found Success Late, Dies at 94

His Moon Knight was a hit in the 1970s, 30 years after he began his career. Bloodshot, another popular superhero, followed two decades later. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-05-26 21:24:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #comic book


The Morning After: Samsung’s secret war on repair

Manufacturers may hate independent repair stores, but Samsung and Apple appeared to accept the direction the political wind was blowing in. Sadly, Samsung’s warm-hearted embrace of third party repair may not have been as loving as had originally been suggested. Details of the contract the Korean... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-05-24 11:15:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #taylor swift #ve put #kindle


9 Great Books with Nonhuman Characters

Simon Van Booy, author of 'Sipsworth,' a novel that grew out of his fascination with a mouse he rescued in 2020, rounds up nine of his favorite books that feature animals as characters. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:


Paul Scheer was abused as a child. His new memoir helped him reclaim 'the power of my voice for my childhood'

Paul Scheer's memoir-in-essays, 'Joyful Recollections of Trauma,' centers largely around the abuse he and his mother suffered at the hands of his stepfather. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-21 10:00:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir


R.O. Kwon on Writing Her Way Into a Book’s Most Truthful Version

R.O. Kwon first novel, The Incendiaries, made my top ten list of books in 2018 for BBC Culture: “Kwon’s finely polished first novel is an explosive mix, tracking the evolution of a cult that turns to violence, bombing abortion clinics.” Her second novel, Exhibit, is more intimate, an artfully... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-21 08:54:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #first novel


U.S. Book Show 2024: Money Talks

Finance maven and TikTok sensation Vivian Tu wants to be your new rich best friend, someone who will help you navigate the world of personal finance—and help you get rich, too, just like her. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:


Anna Noyes on Writing the Book That Keeps Her Awake

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. In The Art of Subtext, Charles Baxter writes, “A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and the unseen.” In 2017, I sold... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-17 08:55:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #anna noyes #lit hub #writingnewsletter—sign #debut novel


'The Way We Live with Authenticity': PW Talks with Author and ‘Guncle’ Jonathan Merritt

The cultural commentator, speaker, literary agent, and author's first children's book 'My Guncle and Me' (Running Press) is a gentle, authentic story of Henry Higgleston, a young boy bullied and teased at school for being different until his “guncle” comes for a visit and shows young Henry that... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #debut children #literary agent #running press #pw caught #children's book


Talking to Leigh Bardugo, Fantasy Superstar

The best-selling author of dark fantasy novels for Y.A. and adult audiences discusses her career and her stand-alone new historical fantasy, “The Familiar.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-05-10 20:36:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #leigh bardugo #best-selling author


Alice McDermott’s Writing Mantra: “Ah, Fuck Em.”

Photo by Miria-Sabina Maciągiewicz. As Emerson said to Whitman: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start.” The same words my editor said to me when I published my first novel in—good God—1982! Although I have to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-10 08:56:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #first novel


Writers Talking Writers: Jennifer Egan on Edith Wharton and Jinwoo Chong on John Okada

Two writers whose work explores the aggregate nature of personal and collective fate discuss authors who were master interrogators of social dualism in their own times. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #jennifer egan #edith wharton


Russian dissident wins Pulitzer for columns he wrote 'at great personal risk' from prison cell

Vladimir Kara-Murza, 42, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his Washington Post columns about Russian politics and society — all of which he wrote in prison.  Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2024-05-08 19:11:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #prison cell #pulitzer prize


PEN America Dissenters Host 'Freedom to Write for Palestine' Fundraiser

Gathering together writers and translators who withdrew from PEN America's Literary Awards and World Voices Festival, the event, held in New York City on May 7, featured stirring readings, offered sharp critiques, and raised money for the Gaza-based nonprofit We Are Not Numbers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pen america #literary awards


On Memoir, Permission, and the Thorny Terrain of Writing About Family

Oftentimes, a reader asks what it’s like to publish a memoir with family members in it. How do you seek permission? What do you do when someone in your family protests your storytelling? Do you write it anyway? In this transmission, the radio delivers the questions as something else: Where is... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-06 08:53:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir


'Harry Potter' set at an HBCU? LaDarrion Williams wrote the book he always wanted to read

'Blood at the Root,' LaDarrion Williams' first novel in a three-book deal — a series that centers on a Black boy in a YA fantasy saga — is the kind of fiction he wishes existed when he was a kid. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-03 10:00:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #harry potter #first novel


AANHPI consumers want better brand representation, Nielsen reports

As companies around the country roll out plans to honor May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a new report out Wednesday suggests members of those communities are paying more attention than ever to representation Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2024-05-01 18:38:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #asian american #nielsen


Literary Agent Richard Parks Dies at 83

Parks, who ran his own eponymous literary agency for more than 35 years, counted Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan Carroll, and Susan Straight among his clients. He died of complications from dementia on April 23. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #susan straight #literary agency


The '90s called. They want their books back

When the graphic novel remake of Ann M. Martin's book Claudia and the Bad Joke was the best-selling kids book in Canada earlier this month, it was time for bookworms to feel their hearts flutter with nostalgia. The original, part of the wildly popular The Baby-Sitters Club series, was published... Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2024-04-26 08:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bad joke #graphic novel