Out & About: Lee Child chats about Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and Jack Reacher

ARE you one of the 100 million people in need of an addictive Jack Reacher fix? With a book selling every nine seconds, famous fans include Tom Cruise (who took Reacher to the big screen), Bill Clinton and Stephen King.

Readers mainline a book a year; The Midnight Line is Lee’s 22nd Jack Reacher novel. The first, Killing Floor, in 1997, changed Jim Grant’s life. Then 40 years-old, he was made redundant from his job at Granada, and reinvented himself as Lee Child. He spent £3.99 on pencils and paper, sat down at his kitchen table and began to write.

It’s the stuff of daydreams. A boy from Coventry flying in helicopters with Tom Cruise (he’s had cameos in the films). Now living in New York, he is one of the biggest-selling authors of all time. So, what is the formula that has readers so hooked?

“People suffer in their lives from over commitment and the pressures of owning houses and working,” says Lee Child, “so they see Reacher as an antidote to that. He doesn’t own anything, he doesn’t work, he doesn’t care, and I think people want to be in that situation if they could.”

Reacher travels only with a toothbrush, no baggage. The strapline: ‘A righteous avenger for our troubled times – we all need Jack Reacher.’ The ultimate drifter, the ex-military cop isn’t chained by society’s rules. At an interview at the 2009 Festival, Child quoted Trotsky: “Spread love and understanding; use force if necessary.”

Child studied Law at Sheffield University, did he always have an innate sense of morality?

“Honestly, I think it’s innate in everybody, apart from a few psychos here and there. Everybody really wants a fair world, everybody really wants to do the right thing, but generally speaking we can’t because we’re either physically incapable of inhibited or intimidated. People live with a kind of buzz of frustration all the time…so they turn to the Reacher books. Reacher does what they want to do, and they find that very consoling – real life isn’t like that but it can be in fiction.”

Reacher soothes a universal nerve in a ‘big culture of anxiety.’ The New York Times review of The Midnight Line, whose plot focuses on opioid addiction, said it is ‘the one that breaks your heart’; “The last chapters have more emotional heft than anything Child has written before.”

“I’m not usually an issues writer, but it was just on my mind, mainly how do you solve problems such as the opioid addiction epidemic,” says Child. “First of all, you have to face the fact people have rotten lives and they need to take the edge off a little bit, and an opiate is a magnificent thing. Until we face up to that we’ll never solve the problem. We have to remove the need rather than just scold and prohibit the substance.”

Critics have said it’s a very sympathetic portrayal of addiction. “I think it is, and you can always count on me to look at it from the addict’s point of view.” He consumes more than 30 cups of coffee a day. “I’ve never tried to give up coffee because that would be absurd, and I once tried to give up cigarettes but I didn’t like being a non-smoker…so yeah, I understand it very well.”

Child no longer identifies as Jim Grant, ‘the past is the past’, and has never been happier. Although success has taught him “you’re still the same person and the world is still the same. It’s not really important, success or money, it’s much more about people and friends.”

He named his tough hero Reacher as his own height meant he was frequently asked to ‘reach’ the top shelves of supermarkets for little old ladies. Clad in black, Child may have a cool exterior, but he is kind and thoughtful. In Harrogate he takes time with fans. Simon Theakston, title sponsor of the festival, described Child as a ‘hero’ to readers. Do any stand out?

“A lot of them, because there’s no law that says they’ve got to read my books, so anyone who does is paying me a huge compliment - they’re giving me two, three days of their life. I get these very touching messages from women who find it helps them bond with their fathers... and sad ones. Just today someone told me their dad was having cancer treatment and the books took his mind off the chemotherapy, so the books are literally helping somebody and that’s a great feeling.”

Child grew up visiting his grandma in Otley; trips to Harrogate felt you needed a ‘passport to get in’. “I grew up in old-fashioned England where it was relatively class bound and opportunities were pre-determined. I was happy to get to America where you have a chance of making it whoever you are.”

He still feels a sense of ‘coming home’, though. “Sometimes it’s very annoying because the new England is full of petty rules and prohibitions, but I think Yorkshire is still a little simpler and more old-fashioned and less touched by that," he says. "Certainly Harrogate has a charm that is old-fashioned, so I do feel at home there, yeah.”

He rates the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival as the best in the world. It has a reputation as a very big, friendly party. “If you look at the authors who turn up to Harrogate, in their books they’ve killed a thousand people collectively that year, and yet they’re the nicest people possible as they must be getting it out of their system," he says.

Giants of the genre have featured at past festivals, including JK Rowling, Ian Rankin and Ruth Rendell. “We’re going to see some big names from America, and I think people are going to be thrilled with the line-up. I think everyone’s going to say ‘wow.’”

Child promises a warm welcome. “I just had lunch with a very shy reader who comes to Harrogate, and if he fits in, anyone fits in, you know. Anybody can come, and they will be welcomed as an absolute equal. They won’t stand out as different in anyway, and everybody will be really happy to see them and authors will be really happy to talk to them, because authors love nobody better than their readers.”

We all need Jack Reacher.

Lee Child is programming chair of the 2018 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, from July 19-22.

W: harrogateinternationalfestivals.com