An interview with Lee Child

07 January 2009

Lee Child is one of the UK’s most successful authors with a string of best sellers to his name. In November he returned to the University, where he studied Law, as a Visiting Professor. While he was here the University, in collaboration with the Off the Shelf Literary Festival, hosted An Audience with Lee Child. Demand for tickets was so high that two similar events were organised to accommodate all his fans – some of whom had travelled over 150 miles just to see him.

During his whirlwind two-day visit Lee spoke exclusively about his relationship with the University and his career.

This is your first trip since being made a Visiting Professor. How does it feel returning to the University as a Professor?
It feels bizarre. I wasn’t a good student and I can’t believe I can be a good example to anybody. Sheffield as a city and as a University has always had a tradition of making itself useful. I guess I fit quite well into that in a sense. What I do produces a real-world product. It shows students that intellect and abstract thinking are important and that you can use it for something.

In your book jackets it says that you spend your time in New York and France, will Sheffield now be added to that list?
It could well be. I’m getting more involved at the alumni level so, yeah, I might well be back from time to time.

You have said during your visit that you see the Reacher series running for 21 books. Will there be more prequel stories in those books and will you solve the mystery as to why Reacher left the army?
Yes, definitely, I’ll have to. Before the series finishes I’m going to have to do that exact book, the prequel that shows the end of his army career. And as soon as I’ve figured out what happened then I’ll write the book.

You have also said that “Plot is a rental car, it’s all about character”. Do you pre-plot your books and does that mean that somewhere there is a detailed dossier on Jack Reacher?
I don’t pre-plot my books at all. I have an idea of the flavour or the thing which might be the main trick or surprise but I don’t pre-plot. I just start off and see how it goes. Reacher is as much of an enigma to me as he is to you. There’s not a centralised database about Reacher, I just remember it and sometimes I get it wrong. For instance, in the third book I say that his promotion sequence happens in a certain time frame. In the seventh book I contradict that. At first I thought I could ignore it but then I realised that somebody would write in. So I decided to explain it in book eight by using it as a plot point. In the end it made me look very prepared as if I’m been planning this since the third book, but in fact it was a mistake.

After 9/11 the world changed and Reacher changed. How will he react following recent events in American politics?
He would be very pleased about the recent election. Reacher has one political principle which is pick the one person who is furthest away from the big corrupt guys and that, I would think, is always the Democrat. I’m not giving them a clean bill of health, but I think they are further away than the Republicans.

Reacher would be intensely annoyed about the response to 9/11 because it’s been hysterical, inefficient and just silly a lot of the time. This business with the air restrictions, about what you can take in the cabin, is ludicrous. If you’re attacked the first thing you do is not alter your behaviour otherwise they are winning. We’re not going to see another aeroplane hijacked, it will be something else next time. Reacher would be frustrated that we’re always fighting the last battle with these ludicrous regulations.

Gone Tomorrow, the 13th Jack Reacher novel, is being published next year and features a storyline about suicide bombers. What can you tell us about it?
It starts out with a list used by law enforcement that was generated by the Israelis about 20 years ago. It’s a list of physical and behavioural indicators for a suicide bomber. There are 11 woman and 12 for a man and if any of these indicators are present then that person is a suicide bomber.

Reacher is not sure if this can be correct because the 11 characteristics say yes, but other factors say no that’s ludicrous. So if the person isn’t a suicide bomber what else could they be? It’s a twisty tale that ends up in a place that is not apparent in the beginning.

Over the years you’ve created a host of supporting characters. Have you ever thought about developing one of them or about writing another character other than Reacher?
I think it would be too much of a let down to leave Reacher out completely. There’s a character called Frances Neagley who shows up in two of the other books and it might be an intriguing idea to do a book about her in which Reacher was a supporting character. The problem with doing that is that Neagley works as a character now because she’s very mysterious. If she was a main character I’d have to explain more about her and that would puncture her mystique.

These days critics are everywhere, from The Times to Amazon.com. Do you read your critics and if you so do you act on their criticism?
I never act on criticism, partly because by the time one book comes out the next is already written. So you would be reacting in a delayed manner. Writing is not about satisfying what you know people did or didn’t like last year. It’s about giving them something that you know they are going to like next year. Even though they don’t know it yet. There’s not too much an author can gain from a critic, because we’ve been close to that book for a whole year while we’re writing it. We know it forwards and backwards; we know where it’s strong, we know where it’s weak, we know what’s wrong with it and we don’t need anyone else to point it out.

Who do you read and do you read fiction when you’re writing a novel?
I read everything I possibly can history, politics, fiction, non-fiction. In connection to Sheffield I’m just reading Ian Kershaw’s Hitler, the Germans and the Final Solution. I didn’t used to read fiction when I was writing because I found the style leaked through. But now I’m pretty much impervious to that.

How much about writing a narrative did you learn while working at Granada Television and how much is self taught?
It’s pretty much half and half from having worked at Granada and from having read thousands of books. I don’t enquire too deeply into the structure and theory of narrative because I’m scared of making it go away. I’d rather it was just instinctive and it clearly is. Some of it is the endless television I watched, some of it is what I have read, but it seems to be imprinted on my DNA by now.

Do you have literary friends who critique your work?
I have friends who read my books and talk about them but not in any structured way. We all read each others books. You always know what they think of it because everybody’s very polite and very nice. They’ll always say “I loved it. It was a great book”, or they won’t say anything. So you know when they haven’t liked it because you won’t hear from them that year.

When are you planning on returning to Sheffield and what can staff, students and Sheffield look forward to in those future visits?
I’ll do whatever Sheffield wants me to do in terms of seminars with students or workshops. They’ve very generously offered me an honorary degree so I guess I’ll be back whenever the degree ceremony is.

You say if you are given a challenge you often take it up. It seems Reacher is the same. How much of your character did you write into Reacher?
E.M. Forster said “All fiction is autobiographical” and I think it is to a large extent. Then you add a layer of your own obsessions. Then you add a layer of your own personal in jokes, like I like coffee therefore Reacher likes coffee, we share the same birthday, that sort of thing. He is fundamentally based on me. I suppose the easiest way to describe it is, if I was 100 pounds heavier, 20 years younger and fictional he does exactly what I would do.

When writing do you ever set out to challenge public opinion and make them think, such as with the Iraq war in Nothing to Lose?
Yes I definitely do. There’s always something in every book that’s a bit of a prod to somebody, simply because Reacher can get away with it. Therefore it gives me latitude to poke a little bit, but I don’t want them to be known as political screeds. So it’s a little subtle and it’s a little hidden and maybe a little throw away. But if somebody does think about it then I’d be very happy.