Lee Child | |
|---|---|
 Child atBouchercon XLI, 2010 | |
| Born | James Dover Grant (1954-10-29)29 October 1954 (age 71) Coventry,Warwickshire, England |
| Occupation | Author |
| Education | King Edward's School, Birmingham |
| Alma mater | University of Sheffield (LLB) |
| Period | 1985–present |
| Genre | Crime fiction,mystery,thriller |
| Notable works | Jack Reacher series of novels |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Andrew Grant (brother) |
| Signature | |
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James Dover Grant[1]CBE (born 29 October 1954), primarily known by hispen nameLee Child, is a British author who writesthriller novels and is best known for hisJack Reacher novel series.[2] The books follow the adventures of a former Americanmilitary policeman,Jack Reacher, who wanders the United States. His firstnovel,Killing Floor (1997), won both theAnthony Award and the 1998Barry Award for Best First Novel.[3][4]
Grant was born inCoventry, England.[5] His Northern Irish Protestant father, who was born inBelfast, was a tax inspector at theInland Revenue who lived in the house where the singerVan Morrison was later born.[6][7]. His father also fought in WW2 and had been in the armoured column that arrived atBelsen to liberate the camp in 1945[8]. His mother began working at 19 at the Inland Revenue but had to leave her job when she married his father[9].
He is the second of four sons;[10] his younger brother,Andrew Grant, is also a thriller novelist. He has an older brother called Richard who he described as a "nuclear scientist".[11]
Grant's family moved toHandsworth Wood inBirmingham when he was four years old so that the boys could receive a better education.[12] Grant attended Cherry Orchard Primary School in Handsworth Wood until the age of 11. He attendedKing Edward's School, Birmingham.[13]
In 1974, at the age of 20, Grant studiedlaw[14] at theUniversity of Sheffield, though he had no intention of entering the legal profession. During his student days, he worked backstage in a theatre.[7] After graduating, he worked incommercial television.[14] He received aBachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Sheffield in 1977 and returned to the university to receive anhonoraryDoctor of Letters (DLitt) in 2009.[15]
Grant joinedGranada Television, part of the UK'sITV Network, inManchester as apresentation director.[16] There he was involved with shows includingBrideshead Revisited,The Jewel in the Crown,Prime Suspect, andCracker. Grant was involved in the transmission of more than 40,000 hours of programmes for Granada, writing thousands of commercials and news stories.[17] He worked at Granada from 1977 to 1995[7] and ended his career there with two years as a trade unionshop steward.[18]
In August 1994, Grant was informed that his job was due to be eliminated in a corporate restructuring, and in anticipation of the coming job loss (he was fired in June 1995), he decided to start writing a novel in September 1994.[19] The first book was initially titledBad Luck and Trouble (this title was re-used in alater book) and was about drug money, but changed toKilling Floor and about counterfeiting on the suggestions of his agent and his publisher.[19] In March 1997,Killing Floor was published, and became a great success. Grant moved to the United States in the summer of 1998.[14] He starts each new book of the series on the anniversary of his starting the first book.[20]
His pen name "Lee" comes from a mispronunciation of the name of Renault'sLe Car, as "Lee Car". Calling anything "Lee" became a family gag. His daughter, Ruth, was "lee child".[21] The name has the advantage of placing his books alphabetically on bookshop and library shelves betweencrime fiction greatsRaymond Chandler andAgatha Christie.[16]
Grant has said that he came up with the name Reacher for the central character in his novels when he was grocery shopping with his wife, Jane, atAsda supermarket inKendal,Cumbria, when he was living atKirkby Lonsdale.[22] Grant's height often leads to people asking him to get something for them from a high shelf. Jane once joked: "'Hey, if this writing thing doesn't pan out, you could always be a reacher in a supermarket.' ... 'I thought, Reacher – good name.'"[7]
Some books in theJack Reacher series are written in the first person, while others are written in the third person. Grant has characterised the books as revenge stories – "Somebody does a very bad thing, and Reacher takes revenge" – driven by his anger at the downsizing at Granada. Although English, he deliberately chose to write American-style thrillers.[16]In 2007, Grant collaborated with 14 other writers to create the 17-part serial thrillerThe Chopin Manuscript, narrated byAlfred Molina. This was broadcast weekly onAudible.com between 25 September 2007 and 13 November 2007.
Grant worked as a visiting professor at theUniversity of Sheffield from November 2008. In 2009, Grant funded 52 Jack Reacher scholarships for students at the university.[23]
Grant was elected president of theMystery Writers of America in 2009.[24] Grant was the Programming Chair for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in 2018, part of theHarrogate International Festivals portfolio.[25]
In 2019, it was announced that Child would curate a new TV show calledLee Child: True Crime. The show would dramatise real-life crime stories from around the world and focus on average people who go to extraordinary lengths to fight crime or seek justice.[26]
In January 2020, Grant announced that he would retire from writing theJack Reacher series and hand it to his brotherAndrew Grant, who would write further books of the series under the surname Child.[27] He intended to write the next few books with Grant before passing the series entirely over to him.[28]
Grant's prose has been described as "hardboiled" and "commercial" in style. In a 2012 interview, Grant said many aspects of the Jack Reacher novels were meant to maintain the books' profitability, rather than for literary reasons. For instance, Jack Reacher was given one French parent in part to increase the series' appeal in France. The interviewer wrote that Grant "didn't apologise about the commercial nature" of his fiction.[29] He called novels the "purest form of entertainment."[30]
Child has listedJohn D. MacDonald,Alistair MacLean, andRobert B. Parker as influences on the Reacher series.[31]
In 2019, Child collaborated with musicians Jennifer and Scott Smith of the group Naked Blue on an album of music exploring Jack Reacher, in song. He contributed vocals to the track "Reacher Said Nothing."[32]
In 2020, Child joined theBooker Prize judging panel, alongside chairMargaret Busby,Sameer Rahim,Lemn Sissay, andEmily Wilson.[33][34][35]
In December 2025, Child was a guest onBBC Radio 4's programmeDesert Island Discs, with his favourite choice of music being "So What" byMiles Davis.[36]
In January 2012, Grant donated £10,000 for a new vehicle for the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team inWales.[37]
Grant is an annual sponsor and original member of ThrillerFest.[38]
Grant married his wife Jane in 1975. They have a daughter.[14][7] They moved toNew York state in 1998 at the beginning of his writing career. In 2025 he moved back to the UK with his family.[39]
Grant is a fan ofAston Villa Football Club;[40] his books sometimes include the names of Aston Villa players.[41]
In 2013, Grant rejected claims that he wrote while under the influence ofmarijuana that were initially reported in theDaily Mail.[42]
Note: For consistency, ISBN is that of theBantam Press (UK) hardcover, first printing only.
^ by Lee Child andAndrew Child
Collections:
| Title | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| "James Penney's New Identity" | 1999, edited 2006 | The 1999 version is longer. Collected inFresh Blood 3 (edited by Mike Ripley andMaxim Jakubowski) and inThriller (US) |
| "Guy Walks into a Bar" | 2009 | Prequel to novelGone Tomorrow, inThe New York Times[46] |
| "Second Son" | 2011 | Electronic short story (August 2011) |
| "Knowing you're Alive" | 2011 | WithM. J. Rose. Crossover withButterfield Institute series. Collected inIn Session |
| "Everyone Talks" | 2012 | InEsquire (June 2012, US edition) |
| "Deep Down" | 2012 | Electronic short story (July 2012) |
| "High Heat" | 2013 | Electronic novella (August 2013) |
| "Good and Valuable Consideration" | 2014 | WithJoseph Finder.Crossover withNick Heller series. Collected inFace Off (edited byDavid Baldacci, June 2014) |
| "Not a Drill" | 2014 | Electronic short story (July 2014) |
| "No Room at the Motel" | 2014 | InStylist (December 2014) |
| "The Picture of the Lonely Diner" | 2015 | Collected inMWA Presents Manhattan Mayhem (June 2015) |
| "Small Wars" | 2015 | Electronic short story |
| "Maybe they Have a Tradition" | 2016 | InCountry Life (December 2016) |
| "Too Much Time" | 2017 | Novella |
| "Faking a Murderer" | 2017 | WithKathy Reichs. Crossover withTemperance Brennan series. Collected inMatchup (June 2017) |
| "The Christmas Scorpion" | 2017 | InThe Mail on Sunday (December 2017) |
| "The Fourth Man" | 2018 | Included in Australian paperback ofPast Tense |
| "Cleaning the Gold" | 2019 | WithKarin Slaughter. Crossover withWill Trent series (May 2019) |
| "Smile" | 2019 | Collected inInvisible Blood (July 2019) |
| "New Kid in Town" | 2022 | Collected inHotel California (May 2022) |
| "Many Happy Returns" | 2023 | InThe Spectator (December 2023) |
| "Over Easy" | 2024 | Included in Australian paperback ofSafe Enough (August 2024) |
Other short stories:
| Novel title | Year | Awards/Nominations |
|---|---|---|
| Killing Floor | 1997 | Anthony Award;Barry Award;Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize;Dilys Award nominee;Macavity Award nominee |
| Die Trying | 1998 | WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award |
| Without Fail | 2002 | Dilys Award nominee;Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award nominee |
| Persuader | 2003 | Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award nominee |
| The Enemy | 2004 | Barry Award;Nero Award; Dilys Award nominee |
| One Shot | 2005 | Macavity Award nominee |
| Bad Luck and Trouble | 2007 | Shortlisted forTheakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, 2009[48] |
| 61 Hours | 2010 | Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, 2011 |
| A Wanted Man | 2012 | Specsavers' National Book Award, Thriller & Crime Novel of the Year[49] |
| Personal | 2014 | RBA Prize for Crime Writing valued at €125,000[50] |
Child has receivedhonorary degrees from several universities. These include:
| Location | Date | School | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
 England | 2009 | University of Sheffield | Doctor of Letters (DLitt)[51][52] |
| England | 21 July 2011 | De Montfort University | Doctor of Letters (DLitt)[53] |
| England | 2023 | Coventry University | Doctor of Letters (DLitt) |
 |
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2005 | The Bob Kellogg Good Citizen Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Internet Writing Community[citation needed] |
| 2013 | Cartier Diamond Dagger, lifetime achievement by theCrime Writers' Association[54] |
| 2017 | ThrillerMaster, lifetime achievement, by theInternational Thriller Writers association[55] |
| 2017 | Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction, lifetime achievement, Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival,Harrogate International Festivals[56] |
| 2019 | Author of the Year, lifetime achievement,British Book Awards[57] |
Grant was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2019 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to literature.[58]
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Recipients of theRBA Prize for Crime Writing | |
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