‘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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A Quiet Author’s Written Rebellion: An Interview with Ananda Devi, by Dinah Assouline Stillman

A Quiet Author’s Written Rebellion: An Interview with Ananda Devi, by Dinah Assouline Stillman Interviews [email protected] Wed, 10/25/2023 - 09:46 Photo by Harrikrisna AnendenAnanda Devi is a noted francophone poet, writer, ethnologist,... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-25 14:46:00 UTC ]
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When a Book Deal Feels Like ‘Winning the Middle-Age Lottery’

Dann McDorman, the executive producer of “The Beat With Ari Melber,” gave up writing fiction in his 20s. Now, he’s publishing his first novel at age 47. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-10-24 09:02:04 UTC ]
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Teju Cole Talks About His New Novel, “Tremor”

“Tremor,” his first novel in over a decade, is set in Massachusetts and Lagos, and came from a desire to capture the last moments of a pre-Covid world. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-10-16 09:00:22 UTC ]
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Write Who You Love: J. Ryan Stradal on Memorializing His Mother Through Fiction

Since my first novel was published, at almost every interview and live event, I get asked a version of the same question. Usually people seem just curious, but occasionally there are notes of hostility or amazement. They want to know why, and often how, I write my female protagonists. The answer... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-16 08:50:29 UTC ]
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Why Tim O'Brien's first novel in 20 years is about America's 'mythomania'

Tim O'Brien, author of the great novel 'The Things They Carried,' explains how COVID and Trump spawned 'America Fantastica,' his first novel in 20 years. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-10-13 10:00:10 UTC ]
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Agatha Christie Books On Sale Today for $2!

Agatha Christie is the bestselling novelist of all time, and many of her ebooks are on sale today for $2-3, including her most popular titles! Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-04 16:44:37 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Wound,’ by Oksana Vasyakina

Oksana Vasyakina’s first novel is a family history and a reflection on womanhood. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-09-05 09:00:20 UTC ]
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The Long, Winding, Booby-Trapped, and Occasionally Rewarding Road to Publication

The road to publication for my first novel was not only long and winding, but also booby-trapped, and in places there was no road, just long empty gaps that could only be filled by time. I started L.A. Breakdown as a junior at UC Santa Cruz, in 1972. I was old for a junior at […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-23 09:40:00 UTC ]
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Sex, Time, and Memory: Annie Ernaux’s Young Man, by Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee

Sex, Time, and Memory: Annie Ernaux’s Young Man, by Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee Book Reviews [email protected] Mon, 08/21/2023 - 15:04   The Young Man—forthcoming from Seven Stories in September 2023—is Annie Ernaux’s first novel in English... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-08-21 20:04:48 UTC ]
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‘It’s like comfort eating’: why readers are hungry for Colleen Hoover

Colleen Hoover’s novels took the top six places on last year’s New York Times bestseller list, while in the UK she rivals Richard Osman as the biggest author in recent times. How has she done it?The first Colleen Hoover book I read was It Ends With Us, and when I opened it on the tube, I saw... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-08-19 10:00:17 UTC ]
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When Writing a Novel Bridges a Gap Between Mother and Daughter

I was deep in the throes of a slow-moving depression, feeling frustrated with a job I had held for seven years, and reeling from the disappointment of a first novel that debuted without the critical and commercial acclaim I was afraid to admit I desired. So I called my mother. “I think I need a […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-09 09:10:27 UTC ]
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An 'alpha vagina' gets top billing in YA star Elizabeth Acevedo's first (very) adult novel

Bestselling YA novelist Elizabeth Acevedo explains why 'Family Lore,' her first novel for adults, features sex, magic and an 'alpha vagina' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-07-31 13:00:02 UTC ]
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Read W. H. Auden’s 1954 review of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Sixty-nine (nice, but in Elvish) years ago this week, the godfather of high fantasy, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, published the first novel in a proposed thee-volume epic “largely concerned with hobbits.” The Fellowship of the Ring has, in the decades since publication, shifted over 150 million... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-28 16:55:39 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Counterweight,’ by Djuna

The pseudonymous South Korean author’s first novel to be translated into English pits a multinational conglomerate against life on earth. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-07-09 09:00:12 UTC ]
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By combining self-help and literature, the School of Life’s first novel does both a disservice | Alice Kemp-Habib

Billed as ‘a therapeutic novel’, the publisher’s first foray into fiction follows 29-year-old Anna’s mental health journey – with a view to helping the reader. But how useful can such clunky writing be?At 29 years old, Anna is full of self-loathing. She hates her job, her boyfriend is having an... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-07 15:45:50 UTC ]
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Mavis Cheek obituary

Author of a series of comic novels that focused on the tragi-comic nature of relationships and the general absurdities of lifeMavis Cheek, who has died aged 75, was the author of a series of comic novels that cast an acute eye on middle-class marriage and relationships and marked her out as one... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-04 16:07:50 UTC ]
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Rare Harry Potter bought for 30p may fetch up to £5,000

First edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone bought by UK book collector goes up for auction next weekIt is a book that has certainly lived up to its name: a rare edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone bought for 30p could fetch up to £5,000 at auction.The first novel... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-06-30 09:29:28 UTC ]
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The Braschian Wave: All the Solitude of an Empire in a Bottle Thrown into the Sea, by Carlos Labbé

The Braschian Wave: All the Solitude of an Empire in a Bottle Thrown into the Sea, by Carlos Labbé Essay [email protected] Wed, 06/28/2023 - 14:55 Photo by Javardh / UnsplashCarlos Labbé wonders whether it is “still possible to speak of... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-06-28 19:55:41 UTC ]
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In Lorrie Moore's first novel in 14 years, 2016's chaos becomes a wild metaphysical trip

Lorrie Moore's fourth novel, 'I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home,' follows a grieving man through the chaos of 2016 and some wondrous metaphysical byways. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-06-14 13:00:25 UTC ]
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It’s Okay to Have a Love/Hate Relationship With Your Writing

One of my moments of greatest relief as a writer—equal, perhaps, to the swell and crest of learning that my first novel would be published—was when, decades ago, my Intro to Creative Writing professor assigned Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and I arrived at this passage: “Very few... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-06 08:53:36 UTC ]
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