One of the world’s top selling crime writers, Lee Child, will be a very special guest at the John Hewitt International Summer School at The Market Place Theatre in Armagh when he and his brother, Andrew Child, will appear in person at a Crime Fiction Special, hosted by Armagh own stellar crime writer, Stuart Neville, on Monday 24 July.
For five years now, Stuart Neville has collaborated with the John Hewitt Society to curate this Crime Fiction Special and invite to Armagh some of the best-known crimes writers. In 2022, Val McDermid,’the Queen of Crime’ and Mark Billingham, regarded as the UK ‘Statesman of Crime Fiction’, came to the Armagh festival. This year, Stuart has gone one better and managed to entice Lee and Andrew Child to his home patch.
The creator of the iconic Jack Reacher Series, a global publishing phenomenon, Lee Child is one of the world’s leading thriller writers was born and raised in England and now lives in New York. He is the recipient of many awards, most recently Author of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
It is said one of Lee Child novels featuring his hero Jack Reacher, Jack Reacher, ‘the coolest continuing series character’ according to Stephen King, is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. His books consistently achieve the number-one slot on bestseller lists around the world and have sold over one hundred million copies.
After Law School and work in the theatre, Lee joined Granada Television for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV’s “golden age.” During his tenure his company made “Brideshead Revisited” , “The Jewel in the Crown”, “Prime Suspect”, and “Cracker”. But he moved on in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring.
Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis, bought six dollars’ worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, “Killing Floor”, the first in the Jack Reacher series.
2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of “Killing Floor” and it also sees the arrival of the 27th novel in the series, ”No Plan B”. Earlier this year 2022 Reacher hit the screens and became Amazon Prime’s most watched series with a second series immediately being commissioned.
Recently Lee Child announced that, after an extraordinary career, he was about to retire from writing and Andrew Child, his younger brother and a highly successful thriller author in his own right, has taken on the daunting task of continuing the Jack Reacher series. However. As part of ‘passing on the baton’, Lee and Andrew have collaborated on three thrillers to date, with the most recent, pulse-pounding read, “No Plan B , Jack Reacher being described by Karen Slaughter as “perfectly plotted .. with bigger twists than ever before”.
Andrew Lee worked in the telecommunications industry in the UK as a ‘temporary’ solution to a short-term cash crisis. Fifteen years later, after carrying out a variety of roles – including a number which were covered by the UK Official Secrets Act – Andrew escaped from corporate life, and established himself as a crime writer, using his family name.
As Andrew Grant, he is the author of nine critically-acclaimed thrillers including “Even”, “Die Twice”, “More Harm Than Good”, “False Witness” and “Too Close To Home”. Andrew is married to novelist Tasha Alexander, and lives on a wildlife preserve in Wyoming, USA.
For the Crime Fiction Special at the Market Place Theatre, Lee and Andrew Child will be in Conversation with Stuart Neville, one of the most popular UK Crime Writers.
Stuart Neville’s debut novel, “The Twelve” (published in the USA as “The Ghosts of Belfast”) won the Mystery/Thriller category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was picked as one of the top crime novels of 2009 by both the New York Times and the LA Times.
Tickets to see Lee and Andrew Child In Conversation with Stuart at the Hewitt Sjummer School are already in big demand and are available fom Box Office at he Market Place Theatre on dHe has since published nine more critically acclaimed books, two of which were under the pen name Haylen Beck and has been shortlisted for various awards, including the MWA Edgar, CWA Dagger, Theakstons Old Peculier Novel of the Yea, as well as the Irish Book Awards Crime Novel of the Year.
Tickets for the Crime Fiction Special with Stuart In Conversation with Lee and Andrew Child in person are already on sale (and tickets are selling fast} at the Market Place Theatre Box Office on 03300 561 025 and Online at visitarmagh.com/marketplacetheatre