‘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 ]
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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'


Spielberg to write for Palazzo retrospective

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 20/04/2011 - 15:13 Palazzo Editions will publish a "major" retrospective of the work of Steven Spielberg in August 2012, written in co-operation with the director. Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective will be written by film critic and documentary... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Finnish dystopian crime for Harvill Secker

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 13/04/2011 - 11:56 Harvill Secker has acquired a dystopian crime novel by Finnish writer Antti Tuomainen, set in a futuristic Helsinki. Publishing director Liz Foley bought UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) to The Healer through... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #harvill secker #niclas salomonsson #salomonsson agency


Quercus acquires Hull-set crime novel

Publication Date: Wed, 06/04/2011 - 14:24 Quercus has won a "keenly contested" auction to a debut literary crime novel set in Hull and East Yorkshire. Editor Jon Riley acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada to The Dark Winter from Oliver Munson at Blake Friedmann in a two-book... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #keenly contested #oliver munson #blake friedmann #true nature


Sceptre to examine secret life of Christopher Marlowe

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 25/03/2011 - 11:56 Sceptre is to publish a début novel-in-verse which promises to put an end to one of the greatest literary mysteries, that of whether playwright Christopher Marlowe wrote Shakespeare's plays. Publishing director Carole... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Forbes wins £50k Warwick Prize for Writing

Publication Date: Wed, 23/03/2011 - 07:50 Writer, journalist and editor Peter Forbes' exploration of mimicry and camouflage in nature, art and warfare has been awarded the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. His Dazzled and Deceived (Yale University Press) was described by chair of judges... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lonely Planet's Richard Samson dies

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 18/03/2011 - 14:52 Lonely Planet general manager for Asia Pacific Richard Samson has died today [18th March], following a battle with a terminal illness. Samson started in his latest role in Lonely Planet's Melbourne head office in June... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Luke Johnson to write business advice for Portfolio

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 15:57 Luke Johnson, best known in the book trade for his spell owning Borders, and fellow Financial Times journalist Mrs Moneypenny are writing business titles for Penguin's business imprint Portfolio. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Secret to Digital Growth: Investing In Content?

Business Insider's Henry Blodget tells (almost) all. But can online revenue cover the costs of original content? Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wanted: buyers for Borders

Administrators are trying to sell 103 Borders and Angus & Robertson bookshops, after the parent of the book chains crumbled under its debt burden. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald

[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2011-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Wants Libraries to Pay (and Pay...and Pay...) for e-Books

Back in 1984, I wrote a book that sold to a lot of libraries. It stayed on the shelves for over a decade. If it had been an ebook published today by HarperCollins, there's a good chance it would have been off those shelves within a year. Or sooner. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Orion signs crime series from Bingham

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 23/02/2011 - 08:38 Orion has signed up a series of crime novels from author Harry Bingham, who? has previously written fiction and non-fiction for HarperCollins. Deputy publishing director Bill Massey made the deal for UK and Commonwealth rights... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Mac acquires "Vesper Lynd" secret agent biog

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 17/02/2011 - 12:05 Pan Macmillan has acquired a biography of the first woman to work as a British secret agent in the Second World War, outbidding Penguin at auction. Editorial director Georgina Morley bought UK and British Commonwealth... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Want more women writers in magazines? Get more female editors.

As Meghan O'Rourke reported here last week, VIDA, an organization for women writers, has released a tally of male and female bylines for the 2010 run of 14 high-end, literary-oriented magazines. Despite a couple of relatively bright spots (the New York Times Book Review surprisingly being one),... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bright spots


The Daily's $30 Million Launch: Archetype for Tablet Success or the Next Portfolio?

Apple kept mum on its highly anticipated digital subscription plan during a press conference today at the Guggenheim in New York City announcing News Corp.'s new tablet publication The Daily (which is available in the App Store as of noon Eastern), but News Corp. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #app store


Eric Carle to write first book in four years for Puffin

Written By: Charlotte Williams Puffin is to publish a new picture book by The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle, his first in four years. The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse will be published in October 2011, in a global, simultaneous publication with Philomel, a Penguin Young Readers... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #picture book #eric carle #simultaneous publication #motoko inoue


Richard and Judy launches kids books club

Written By: Lisa Campbell A children's book written by Jo Nesbo is among the choices in Richard and Judy’s Children’s Book Club, which launched in W H Smith today [27th January]. The husband-and wife television presenting team are working alongside the charity Booktrust, to encourage more... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Adam Haslett on Stanley Fish's How To Write a Sentence.

In 1919, the young E.B. White, future New Yorker writer and author of Charlotte's Web, took a class at Cornell University with a drill sergeant of an English professor named William Strunk Jr. Strunk assigned his self-published manual on composition titled "The Elements of Style," a 43-page list... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writers Are Asked Not to Talk About Author of ‘O’

Simon & Schuster requested that journalists and other writers not comment if asked whether they were responsible for the novel “O,” about a fictional 2012 presidential campaign. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Report: Verso and NewPage Back in Merger Talks

NewPage Paper and Verso--the largest makers of coated paper and the subject of merger rumors last year--are b Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Circalit Seeks Crime Fiction

A year-old social networking and digital distribution platform that aims to bring writers and agents together has created a contest to find "the next big crime fiction blockbuster." Circalit, launched in February 2010 as a place for screenwriters to showcase their work to studios, began inviting... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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